Studer Community Institute

Filling the aviation pipeline

June 16, 2015
/ Duwayne Escobedo, Gulf Coast Reporters League
/ education

It usually takes a lot to get Daniel Busse excited. But mention Pensacola State College plans to provide the Northwest Florida region’s next generation of aerospace workers and this dean of workforce development and vocational support becomes animated. Busse begins talking about working with the Florida Legislature to fund an innovative, high-tech $26 million STEM Center at the main campus in Pensacola, which would drive home important lessons in science, technology, engineering and math. The center would boast labs located at the neighboring Pensacola International Airport Commerce Park, a major aerospace economic development player. “This is not a short-term endeavor, this is a long-term commitment,” Busse said, speaking rapidly. “Aerospace companies and suppliers are not coming here immediately. What they need to see first is an advantage to them to come to this community. When they do come, we will have everything for them to be profitable and successful. Students will be able to walk through our doors and expect to have a really bright future when they walk out.” For the past three years, it’s all he and other local business leaders have focused on. In fact, workforce development, especially with aerospace, seems to be a topic across the region. Back in 2011 during the first Aerospace Alliance Summit in Destin, representatives from aerospace companies emphasized the importance of training the next generation of aerospace workers if the region wants to grow its aviation footprint. Educators and workforce development specialists have responded. Even Airbus, which will build A320 jetliners in Mobile, Ala., is getting involved. It created a coloring book for kindergarten and first graders to help children understand its assembly line. In fact, the arrival of Airbus caused a ripple. The general consensus is that aerospace and aviation activities are growing, and future workers will be in great demand. In Florida, Pensacola State College plans to quickly ramp up its aerospace and aviation-related courses, certifications and degrees and to build the STEM Center. In Alabama, Enterprise State Community College has prepared airframe and powerplant mechanics at the Alabama Aviation Center since 1976 and recently began developing a composites program. In Mississippi, Gulfport High School in 2010 became the first school in the state to combine course work and career-based projects to prepare students for the future aerospace workforce that will be needed. Workforce experts from companies, education and government are working together to close an admitted huge skills gap to turn the area into a world-class aerospace, space and aviation corridor. Roger Wehner, president and CEO of the Mobile Airport Authority, is a huge advocate for the value of education. He has a poster in his office with an aerial view of the Mobile Aeroplex and the Airbus assembly line. It shows a youth park with a view of the plant, along with an elementary, middle and high school with an aviation academy all within a mile of the plant. He can see the day a child playing soccer at the park might take a look at a plane taking off will be intrigued. The child might one day work his or her way through the school system and eventually take a high-paying job at the Aeroplex with one of the aviation companies at the complex. Condensed from Chapter 3, Gulf Coast Aerospace Corridor 2015-2016. Read all of chapter three here. Gulf_Coast_Aerospace_Corridor.com is a website created in 2008 to highlight aerospace activities along the Interstate 10 corridor between New Orleans and Northwest Florida. It includes reference material, job postings, a daily aerospace newsfeed and weekly column. In 2011, the website teamed with several journalists to create the Gulf Coast Reporters’ League, which writes and publishes an annual book about aerospace in the region. The first book was published in June 2011. In September 2013, the League launched an eight-page quarterly aerospace newsletter, which became a bimonthly in August 2014 after the League published the fourth edition of the annual. All the books can be found at: www.gulfcoastaerospacecorridor.com/gcacbooksall.html and all the newsletters can be found at www.gulfcoastaerospacecorridor.com/gcacnewslettersall.htm

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