Boeing has recognised the demographic time bomb that is challenging business prospects in the aerospace industry. Alan Peaford meets some of the young people who are helping the American giant face up to those challenges.
As a high school student in Pittsburgh, Pennsyvania, the young Nicoleet Yovanof would often stand in her yard and stare up at the skies.
“I was fascinated by astronomy and the whole idea of space exploration,” Yovanof says. Aware that astronomy offered her little in career prospects, her natural inclination towards maths and physics saw her push her teachers toward supporting her dream of becoming an aeronautical engineer.
Now ten years on, Yovanof is one of the thousands of graduates selected by Boeing and enrolled in its REACH programme (Regional Events and Activities for College Hires).
The company is facing a severe shortage of engineers. Boeing’s defence chief Jim Albaugh described the lack of science and technical graduates leaving universities in the USA and Europe as an “intellectual disarmament.”
Efforts like the REACH programme to motivate, involve and engage its young recruits are a huge investment for the future – but one that is already paying off.
Challenge
“It is a tremendous challenge for us,” says Nan Bouchard. vice president, engineering & mission assurance. “Reaching young people at high school is too late, getting them at university is way too late.” Bouchard believes that the whole industry should be attracting youngsters to the idea of science and engineering as early as elementary school.
“We need to be attracting more young women and people from the minorities. Engineering is still seen as a white male career – that needs to change,” she says.
Meeting a group of the REACH network at Boeing IDS office in Huntingdon Beach earlier this month demonstrated the uphill struggle Bouchard and the aerospace leadership face.
“Of fifty engineers graduating from my class, there were only four women,” says Yovanof. “I was the only one going to aerospace,”
Omakhoje Amu has a similar story. He studied computer science and was feted by both Microsoft and Google. He listened to the Boeing story and decided to opt for software development with the company, “It was the right choice,” he says. “I got what I was sold. There are lots of opportunities to complete different tasks which as a software engineer I find stimulating. Working on things like future combat systems and space programmes is really exciting.”
For Matthew Daines, a University of California graduate, the opportunity to continue learning was also a bonus for the Boeing choice. “The company sponsors learning programmes,” he said. “If you want to do an MBA or a masters degree then the company pays for it – and they pay for all the books too.”
A fourth graduate Mark Ambrosi agrees. “There are so many opportunities to continue learning, to travel and to develop. The company is getting involved in things like engineering week or bring a child to work, it is things like this that will get the message across.”
All four agreed with Bouchard’s belief that the engineering message needs to be got across to schools early.
“Lots of people don’t realise what opportunities exist for people who do well in math and science at school,” says Ambrosi. “Boeing is teaming up with a number of high schools and getting its own graduates to get involved in showing just what is possible.
Experience
One school in Long Beach is already becoming proficient in 3D modelling and many of the pupils come to Boeing for work experience.”
“It’s this outreach that makes the difference,” says Amu, “Talking to kids makes them realise the potential. But the first question I am asked is how much money do you make?”
The benefits and rewards are good for graduates joining Boeing but it may not be enough.
The AIA is coming to Paris to talk to other groups and share best practice – but also look for ways to stem the flow of departures from the industry. In the USA there are almost 300,000 fewer aerospace employees than there were in the early 1990s.
The organisation estimates that some 27% of all the US aerospace engineers are eligible for retirement by the end of 2008.
That’s a figure endorsed by Boeing’s Bouchard.
“We are fortunate in that many of the people who could retire are choosing not to,” she says, “But we have to make positive moves to attract more people to the industry. We have to do things both on a local level and nationally with industry bodies like the AIA.”
“We have 33,000 engineers in Boeing, the numbers depend on the different programmes we win. We need several thousand new engineers every year. Our emphasis is on creating opportunities to grow; people can more around the company geographically and our engineers enjoy the work we are doing and know the programmes they are working on are important for the country and for individual fulfilment.”
Boeing reaches out to some 240 colleges and universities in the USA and internationally and has 150 executives who regularly act as a focal points for key universities. “This is essential,” says Bouchard. “It shows we are commited at a senior level to bringing people into this industry and this company.”
The AIA is developing a major campaign to attract teachers and students into Science, Technology, Engineering and Math programs.
“The teachers need to be interested and they need to know how aerospace as an industry can offer opportunities,” says Yovanof. “At my high school I was an odd one out thinking of a career in aerospace. I hope that others will soon have that dream.”
Source: Flight Daily News
