Aerospace NewsLETTER Louisiana Mississippi Alabama Florida Vol. VI, Issue III A bi-monthly update of aerospace activities in the Gulf Coast I-10 region December 2018 Support provided by About 100 participants were on hand for the two-day Aerospace Alliance Summit at Point Clear, Ala., in early November. GCAC photo Aerospace summit Worker pinch about to hit home The aerospace industry faces a the alarm for some time now. But in the severe worker shortage worldwide, next two years it will hit home big-time and and in the next few years Mobile and the Gulf Coast will get to see if it’s up to the Pensacola will be tested to see if they challenge of finding workers. can fill hundreds of new openings... The Mobile-Pensacola area will have to find a way to pack the training pipeline to fill up to 2,000 aerospace jobs that will be he numbers are large enough to required by two companies - one in each make economic development offi- city. And if that’s not enough of a mountain T cials drool. But they can also make to climb, more jobs may open as additional workforce officials and educators fret. suppliers come in. On top of that, there’s a The issue: The aerospace industry world- hint of another assembly line (page 5). wide is facing a severe shortage of workers, If all the current plans reach fruition, Mo- from pilots to maintenance workers and bile, Ala., will need to some 650 workers for more. Industry officials have been sounding two passenger jet assembly lines - one that’s Copyright 2018, Tcp/GCRL PAGE 2 GCRL/GCAC Newsletter December 2018 already building Airbus A320 passen- “One of the things that we need to about the future. ger jets and targeted for an expansion, do is to make sure we have the pipeline Stephanie Burt, director of Human and a second line that will assemble of young people coming in to it, and Resources of Airbus U.S. Manufactur- A220 jetliners - the former Bombardier being able to follow in the footsteps of ing Facility in Mobile, said Airbus cur- CSeries passenger jet. everyone that's done so much work to rently has 480 direct employees, with Meanwhile just 60 miles to the east, bring the aviation industry to the Alli- 10 percent engineers, 32 percent busi- Pensacola, Fla., which this summer ance states,” Watret said. ness professionals and 58 percent pro- opened the ST Engineering Aerospace Others have also voiced concern duction workers. maintenance, repair and overhaul over the shortage. In September the In Phase I Airbus hired 250 people (MRO) hangar at Pensacola Interna- Federal Aviation Administration held a with at least five years of experience, tional Airport, is getting together the Workforce Symposium that attracted and sent them to Airbus’ European funding to build three additional ST participants from across the aerospace facilities for six to nine months for on- Engineering MRO hangars. They will spectrum. Participants heard that the the-job training. When they came back bring 1,300 new jobs. number of jobs is growing but the tal- over 80 ex-pats returned with them to It’s an exciting development, for ent pool is not keeping up. No matter help with their technical learning and sure. But it also represents an incredi- how good the training pipelines may to open the facility in Mobile. ble challenge for workforce develop- be, they’re useless without student in- In Phase II Airbus continued to hire ment officials at a time when young terest, participants said (see October 2018 experienced people but was also able people have far more options for their education issue). to hire less experienced workers with technical skills. Still, if the two cities Education and training has been of one to five years experience who did can pull it off and manage to meet the interest to the participants of the Alli- on-the-job-training with the ex-pats. workforce need of both companies, it ance summits for years. Watret pointed “What does the third phase look like is likely to catch the attention of the out that the first time they focused on for us? It's extremely challenging,” industry and serve as a case study for education and training at a past summit Burt said. addressing a global problem. they had 11 people, “and each year the “At this point in time we have defi- small rooms end up filling up.” This nitely gotten enough applicants that The summit year half the summit focused on educa- have one to five years of experience, Education was the topic last month tion and training. but we know with 700 jobs that are on the first day of the two-day Aero- Ron Garriga, associate executive di- going to saturate the market by us space Alliance Summit at the Grand rector of U.S. Campus Operations, alone. we're not going to be able to fill Hotel in Point Clear, Ala. The Alliance, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University those jobs with the local population.” which promotes aerospace and avia- Worldwide, said the industry will need It’s the expected growth of the cur- tion in Alabama, Florida, Louisiana and 790,000 pilots, 754,000 technicians and rent A320 assembly line and the new Mississippi, holds a summit each year 890,000 new cabin crew over the next one in the works for the smaller A220 to address issues important to the 20 years to maintain the world’s fleet. that is causing concern. member states. The second day looked “Ladies and gentlemen,” Garriga “We have a new facility in the A220 at what lies ahead for the industry. said, “if that doesn’t concern you, model and we’re looking to hire 400 to Their message to the more than 100 where have you been? … We have got 500 individuals,” she said. “With our participants this year was clear: aero- to get our pipeline together.” A320 ramp-up to a rate five (per space in the four states is growing and month), we're looking to hire over an steps need to be taken to ensure the The Airbus experience additional 150 individuals.” workforce pipeline is filled. In addition, One aerospace company that has On top of that, there are likely to be technology is changing rapidly and will dealt with workforce issues in recent work opportunities in the supply chain, impact the industry and the way the years is Airbus, the European plane which will add to the workforce need. workforce is trained. maker that’s had a presence in Mobile Neal Wade, director of the Universi- since 2005, but kicked it into high gear New tech school ty of Alabama Economic Academy and when it opted to build A320 series jet- Burt said Airbus needs to look for a chair of the Aerospace Alliance, said in liners in Mobile. workforce “that we can develop our- opening remarks that all surveys point Airbus started from scratch building selves here.” to education and workforce training as its Gulf Coast assembly line workforce. “We need to do that through tech- a top critical need. John Watret, chan- While it had no trouble finding work- nical programs, and there are many cellor of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical ers for its assembly line - there were technical programs in the area, but we University, reiterated the message as 30,000 applicants for the first 200 jobs need to have help from our teachers, Wade. - the company does have concerns from our parents, from our counselors December 2018 GCRL/GCAC Newsletter PAGE 3 so that children will know and individ- workforce is to appeal to underrepre- vehicle also won’t be texting somebody uals will know that the aviation careers sented groups. Neither women nor while driving. are worth going after, they can make African-Americans are represented in a The move to autonomous vehicles really good careers.” way that reflects the makeup of the will have a major impact on those who To help alleviate the crunch, Airbus community. drive trucks or cars for a living, and is working towards creating a technical We have to have a more diverse they will require less maintenance than school of its own that would help pro- workforce than what we do today,” today’s combustion vehicles. vide it with the larger workforce it will said Burt. Fewer people are working in manu- need with the two assembly lines. facturing than in the past. He pointed The tech school would not be de- What lies ahead out that if you were to look at the Air- signed to keep people away from four- There is little doubt that industries, bus manufacturing footprint 10 or 20 year or two-year colleges, but to create including aerospace, will change in the years ago, it would have been different. more opportunities for the local and future given the rapid changes brought Every change is going to cause signifi- extended community who may not by innovation. That was the focus on cant disruption. take the traditional college path. It the second day of the summit. “How does the education system would open next year. “It’s an extraordinary time, the tech- respond and educate a new generation She said it’s not going to be a tech- nology is changing almost everything of citizens who will find meaningful, nical school in the traditional sense of about how we deal with everything. It’s value-added work at the end of the day a two-year college, but rather a place changing how we behave, how we as opposed to being a simple cog in a where someone who went to a two- learn, how we move, how we make machine?” he asked.