The Power of Aviation Chapter Groups
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By Kathryn B. Creedy
Few realize the power held by aviation’s chapter groups like the Association for Women in Aviation Maintenance or Women in Aviation International but even fewer of these groups work together to create what will solve the aviation/aerospace workforce shortage once and for all – an aviation/aerospace education ecosystem offering up the K-to-Career pipeline our industry wants but has no time to create.
Chapter groups are our force multiplier, an army of aviation and aerospace workers and enthusiasts in every corner of America.
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Another problem is the fact we’ve relied largely on volunteers which has been very effective but with the thousands of programs out there and the efforts of organizations to create pieces of the puzzle, they need to be organized so we can promote aviation/aerospace on a national basis.
Fair warning it will take a new pot of money to pay a professional staff to put it all together, but we think it is easier than the industry knows…if we check our egos at the door and work on behalf of the industry. The credit will be there as we direct people to your programs.
Much of what we need is already there including the blueprint for what is missing with the Youth Access to Aviation Jobs in America Task Force (YIATF) report, which, with the Women in Aviation Advisory Board report, continue to gather dust at the DOT. The National Coalition of Aviation and Space Educators aims to bring them to fruition. We cannot wait on government to act.
And we must ensure, this pot of money does not dilute the impact of the sponsors of our chapter groups and nonprofit STEM programs. Connecting the dots between educators, parents, students, teachers and corporate workforce development officials, should yield benefits for both with the rising tide.
Silos
Another problem is most groups operate in silos putting on and promoting their own events while participating only in each other’s major conferences. These chapter events are great at exciting kids but then what…an entire year goes by before the next one.
What if we were to participate in each other’s local events?
What if we were to show kids not only aviation careers and but take them by the hand and introduce them to their next steps?
What if we gathered the information on careers and scholarships as well as contact information for the local chapters of AWAM, Civil Air Patrol, EAA, Profession Women Controllers, The 99s, The Whirly Girls, Women in Corporate Aviation, Women at NASA, Women in Aerospace, WAI, NGPA, OBAP and Latino Professionals in Aerospace.
What if we worked together? Think of the possibilities.
Kids would not only see the professionals in their local area, but they would also get to know them and keep in touch with them as mentees. Chapter groups could use their mailing lists to send alerts about career fairs and other aviation events in their local ecosystem.
If we were to do that, we would keep their attention in a very distracting world, expose them to all careers, not just our own, and provide them tours of local companies so they can see the careers we have in their own community. And companies could create relationships at an early age about what it takes to join their team.
And it’s not just about the kids. As AI disrupts the workforce and the economy results in layoffs, we need to let the parents know there are high paying, high value jobs out there that do not take a four-year degree. They need to know there is adult education and training that will get them there.
Industry Companies are Already Creating Great Programs
As I’ve covered our workforce shortages, I’ve watched as airlines, business aviation, chapter groups and aviation and aerospace manufacturers have created programs that build the pipeline.
RTX – Collins, Pratt & Whitney and Raytheon – created an aviation STEM program, teaming with the Boys & Girls Clubs of America. Duncan Aviation and West Star Aviation created AMT training and apprenticeship programs to feed their pipelines. Piper created its own training program, and, working with government workforce officials, is staffing its production line. Boeing has the Core Plus Program in Washington State schools. GE Aerospace is targeting colleges and universities.
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On the Space Coast
Creating the K-to-Career Aviation/Aerospace Education Pipeline is what we do on the Space Coast of Florida, and what the National Coalition of Aviation and Space Educators (NCASE) is trying to build nationwide, by connecting dots between educators, community leaders, and corporate workforce development programs.
In our aviation/aerospace ecosystem are government economic and workforce development officials who have already identified aviation and aerospace as key economic drivers and who are looking for community partners to help them train and educate the future workforce. We also include all the local nonprofit STEM education groups from coding to robotics, drones, individual pilots and AMTs.
Our ecosystem also includes the public-school career and technical education offices, local colleges, AMT Schools and Flight Schools, aviation museums, FBOs and airports all coming to talk about their careers. We scour local businesses and find great tours to offer the kids – an event every other month like the tower tour we did at a local airport and an aviation museum, or the tour we did of Sheltair’s FBO to expose them to business aviation. Future events will include a tour of an aircraft manufacturer, an airport and an MRO.
If that sounds too much for an individual group, partner with other organizations to promote their activities. That’s why we need to work together.
The Space Coast Aviation/Aerospace Education Ecosystem was created organically by the Space Coast Women in Aviation Alliance, by going about our daily routine and meeting people who should be part of the ecosystem – government officials, STEM educators, CTE educators, professors, companies and attending aviation/aerospace career fairs. Those happy hours at the chapter groups are great at building the ecosystem! Just a few follow up emails, putting them on our list for alerts of both events and scholarships and calling on them to exhibit at the Girls in STEM Day or WAI-Harbor City’s GIAD. And promoting their events to our lists. They became our enthusiastic exhibitors.
Our ecosystem taps a national trend of families looking beyond college. They are responding to trade schools knowing they’ll have a guaranteed job at the end and no college debt. This trend has been underway since 2016, and aviation and aerospace haven’t really exploited it the way other industries have. The building trades unions pay for training!
When I talk to people, I advise going to trade school, getting their certificate right out of high school, joining the workforce and then using employee benefits to go to college or upskill and reskill.
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The Underrepresented Workforce Shortages
Our manufacturers have a workforce shortage problem greater than pilots or AMTs because without the workforce, the aviation and aerospace industry cannot grow. The economic cost is huge as Aeronautical Repair Station Association pointed out years ago in a survey of members. The results showed MROs were leaving $1.4 billion on the table for lack of workforce so manufacturing is a career we really promote. But they don’t get the ink pilots and AMTs do.
What our industry has never done is connect workforce development officials at our industry companies and the STEM educators. When we talk to company workforce development officials about their development efforts, it is all about filling the next post and poaching each other’s employees. That does nothing for the pipeline, and it is a K-to-Career Pipeline we need.
The ecosystem includes all the aviation alphabet soup groups who work in Washington and the National Coalition of Aviation and Space Educators is working to bring them under the tent. Remember they are chapter groups, too. Doing that will help us coordinate what they do – the American Rocketry Challenge, MRO Americas, the Aerospace Maintenance Competition, student days at NBAA conferences – with what the other legs of the stool do.
The model is the National Business Aviation Association which uses its annual conference to introduce kids to careers. The last day is a career track for high school and college kids. Equally important is NBAA’s regional network. It has very sophisticated regional chapters that host business aviation and professional development events. In our ecosystem is the Central Florida Business Aviation Association and we support its career fairs by broadcasting the information to our lists which includes professors and collegiate aviation chapter groups.
That’s what NCASE wants to do – have regional aviation/aerospace educaton conferences to make our industry more accessible to teachers, guidance counselors, students, parents, local government officials and the companies in our industry.
National Programs
Few know almost everything we need has already been invented with nationwide impact. Even decades-long veterans have no idea that all this is available and much of it is free.
Crew Concept Lab has Drone Soccer Teams, AOPA has its High School STEM Curriculum and Choose Aerospace in schools across the country. Numerous organizations – the Space Foundation and ERAU Gaetz Institute also have aviation-related STEM curricula. Many are free but schools don’t know about them. NASA has a website that includes having students get up close and personal with astronauts on the International Space Station. Talk about inspiration. For those without the AOPA/Choose Aerospace or ERAU curricula in their schools, EAA has its AeroEducate and pages for both parents and students.
Future Aviation/Aerospace Workforce News, my publication, has a list of aviation education resources and corporate workforce development programs. But there are thousands more needing to be added to that list. I also have an Aviation/Aerospace Calendar of Events and an article on how to use it the calendar to promote our careers. The resources are out there and mostly free, if we could just spread the word in our local communities. We also have a list of local organizations and resources we hand out at our Girls in STEM Day and WAI’s Girls in Aviation Day switching out the SCWAA logo for that of WAI. That way the kids have the information they need to take the next steps.
Checking Our Egos at the Door
As I’ve travelled around to different conferences discussing the effort, a lot of people are excited because they are invested in paying it forward as AWAM does and promoting our careers. They are looking for a way to have a greater impact.
More established groups and the aviation alphabet groups in Washington are more wary and rightly so. They’ve been trying to build the workforce for four decades and haven’t made much progress. But they have been relying on the federal government to solve our problems for us. While the feds have done a yeoman job with Congressionally mandated workforce development grants and FAA and NASA websites, it hasn’t done what is needed – a grass-roots-level effort bringing the entire ecosystem together in one giant effort.
Progress Is Being Made
Things are roiling up to the surface as the National Association of State Aviation Officials illustrated recently. It has teamed with its highway counterpart to develop an event website linking their careers to local events. It is in its infancy, but it will be great. But it illustrates that if you address one issue, the work is getting done. Those are the small victories industry workforce development leaders tell us we need to prove our credibility.
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Pittsburgh International Airport, as it was planning its new terminal, reached out to both the building trades and community organizations to deliver training to bulk up the workforce building it. PIA is no longer and foreboding island but an integral part of the local community.
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WAI, CAP, EAA and the Aircraft Modelers Association are teaming with both FAA and NASA to see what needs to happen to scale this whole effort. They are all integral parts of the aviation/aerospace education ecosystem. The question they ask is what’s next and how do we get there. We have the answer.
The National Hall of Fame is developing a website to represent our industry careers on top of its PBS children’s programming — Learning with Will and Orv – which it hopes to elevate nationally.
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NAHF is excited about working with the entire industry to ensure the website is what we all need.
And the National Coalition of Aviation and Space Educators wants to bring it all together and actually promote the heck out of each and every one of these efforts.
A lot is happening, and we will need a lot of help, but we know a lot is already out there as well. It only needs organizing and promoting. Not just to industry officials but to parents and parenting magazines.
If you are interested in joining the effort, become a part of our aviation/aerospace education ecosystem by emailing me: kcreedy@kathrynbcreedy.com I’ll put you on my scholarship alert mailing list and NCASE will keep you posted as our efforts evolve.
As we’ve spoken with industry officials, they tell us it is too big a task.
They protest that these plans are all well and good, but the need is now. Well, the need will always be “now,” if we don’t come together.
They say it can’t be done. Go for the small wins to build our credibility. And they could be right, but it is worth a try. I don’t think they realize all the resources and energy already there.
One of two things will happen. As we build this future we will find out it is happening organically in every corner of America and doesn’t need to be organized. It is happening organically, but NCASE believes it needs organization and promotion.
For now, when I hear their caution, I smile and think they have no idea the energy already being expended to create the workforce of the future. For that reason, I think it can be done and if we work together… Just watch us.
And, as I talk to contacts around the world, the idea is to go global.
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