ATLANTA — Georgia’s largest aerospace employers expressed concern Monday that not enough young people are entering the field to keep them on the industry’s forefront.
The comments came during a panel discussion at the convention of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, which has brought more than 2,000 engineers, pilots, executives and scientists from 41 states and 46 countries to Georgia for the week.
The issue is important to the state’s economy because planes and their parts are Georgia’s No. 1 export. There are more than 700 aviation-related companies here, including Delta Air Lines, the state’s largest private employer, and firms like Gulfstream Aerospace and Standard Areo.
Delta is hiring 50 pilots every month and expects to increase that pace to cope with a coming wave of retirements. It also needs employees with technical backgrounds for other positions as well, notes Capt. Steve Dickson, senior vice president of flight operation for the airline.
“The airlines as well as defense manufacturers are essentially dealing with the same demographic (of retiring engineers). ... We really need to work harder as a country to make sure that our base doesn’t erode,” he said.
Lockheed Martin Aeronautics, which has 6,000 workers in Georgia, is also dealing with a wave of retirements, according to Jack Crisler, the manufacturer’s vice president, who expressed similar concerns about having enough technically trained people to hire.
Dickson said policies should be in place to encourage students to study science, technology, engineering and math — the so-called STEM courses
— so that aviation careers will be open to them.
“To the extent that we can encourage young people to come into technical disciplines and to know that this is a great industry to be in ... that will keep the industry strong,” Dickson said.
The comments came just days after Georgia received poor grades on its manufacturing environment by Ball State University’s Center for Business and Economic Research. The report was particularly negative about Georgia’s workers quality and their educational background, with a D for Human Capital and a C for Productivity & Innovation.
Yet, aviation is important to the state. It has a long history in the field, dating back to Athens inventor Ben Epps’ flight of his own monoplane in 1907, just four years after the Wright Brothers.
The Athens Ben Epps Airport was the first in the state to offer commercial service, and Delta Air Lines, one of the world’s largest passenger carriers, traces its roots to a crop-dusting service begun in Macon. Now, of course, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport is the world’s busiest passenger airport.
To build on those strengths, the state has engineering programs at five universities and a specialized aviation program at Middle Georgia College as well as at six technical colleges.
“In that regard, we are doing well. We can pump out all the engineers we need,” said Steve Justice, director of the Georgia Center of Innovation for Aerospace, a state clearing house for policy coordination. “We have all the resources in place. What we need to do better is to encourage young people — middle-school and high-school students — to want to pursue a career in aviation.”
The center has worked with the Department of Education in drafting the state’s new career pathways curriculum as well as encouraging volunteer groups like the Civil Air Patrol. Plus, it sees inviting conventions like Aeronautics and Astronautics as a way to raise the Georgia industry’s visibility and publicize the career opportunities in the state, he said.
Sandra Magnus, the former astronaut who heads the trade group holding this week’s convention, said getting students interested in technical subjects isn’t unique to Georgia.
“I don’t think you can talk to one technical society in the country that is not involved in the STEM issue,” she said.
Individuals and companies in the field can do things like judge science fairs, conduct hands-on engineering workshops and offer class tours of their facilities, she said, because the goal is to get kids interested before they stop paying attention to math and science courses. Students who discover an interest in STEM late in high school or college typically get discouraged and quit because they have too much ground to make up if they didn’t study diligently in earlier grades.