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THE AVIATION WORKFORCE: 

INDUSTRY AND LABOR PERSPECTIVES 

ON TRAINING NEEDS AND CHALLENGES 

FIELD HEARING 

BEFORE THE

SUBCOMMITTEE ON AVIATION OPERATIONS, 

SAFETY, AND SECURITY 

OF THE

COMMITTEE ON COMMERCE, 

SCIENCE, AND TRANSPORTATION 

UNITED STATES SENATE 

ONE HUNDRED TWELFTH CONGRESS 

FIRST SESSION 

OCTOBER 24, 2011 

Printed for the use of the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation 

( 

(II) 

SENATE COMMITTEE ON COMMERCE, SCIENCE, AND TRANSPORTATION 

ONE HUNDRED TWELFTH CONGRESS 

FIRST SESSION 

JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER IV, West Virginia, Chairman 

DANIEL K. INOUYE, Hawaii 

JOHN F. KERRY, Massachusetts 

BARBARA BOXER, California 

BILL NELSON, Florida 

MARIA CANTWELL, Washington 

FRANK R. LAUTENBERG, New Jersey 

MARK PRYOR, Arkansas 

CLAIRE MCCASKILL, Missouri 

AMY KLOBUCHAR, Minnesota 

TOM UDALL, New Mexico 

MARK WARNER, Virginia 

MARK BEGICH, Alaska 

KAY BAILEY HUTCHISON, Texas, Ranking 

OLYMPIA J. SNOWE, Maine 

JIM DEMINT, South Carolina 

JOHN THUNE, South Dakota 

ROGER F. WICKER, Mississippi 

JOHNNY ISAKSON, Georgia 

ROY BLUNT, Missouri 

JOHN BOOZMAN, Arkansas 

PATRICK J. TOOMEY, Pennsylvania 

MARCO RUBIO, Florida 

KELLY AYOTTE, New Hampshire 

DEAN HELLER, Nevada 

ELLEN L. DONESKI, Staff Director 

JAMES REID, Deputy Staff Director 

BRUCE H. ANDREWS, General Counsel 

TODD BERTOSON, Republican Staff Director 

JARROD THOMPSON, Republican Deputy Staff Director 

REBECCA SEIDEL, Republican Chief Counsel and Chief Investigator 

SUBCOMMITTEE ON AVIATION OPERATIONS, SAFETY, AND SECURITY 

MARIA CANTWELL, Washington, Chairman 

DANIEL K. INOUYE, Hawaii 

BARBARA BOXER, California 

BILL NELSON, Florida 

FRANK R. LAUTENBERG, New Jersey 

AMY KLOBUCHAR, Minnesota 

TOM UDALL, New Mexico 

MARK WARNER, Virginia 

MARK BEGICH, Alaska 

JOHN THUNE, South Dakota, Ranking 

Member 

JIM DEMINT, South Carolina 

ROGER F. WICKER, Mississippi 

JOHNNY ISAKSON, Georgia 

ROY BLUNT, Missouri 

JOHN BOOZMAN, Arkansas 

PATRICK J. TOOMEY, Pennsylvania 

DEAN HELLER, Nevada 

(III) 

C O N T E N T S 

Page 

Hearing held on October 24, 2011 .......................................................................... 1 

Statement of Senator Cantwell .............................................................................. 2 

WITNESSES

Douglas R. King, President, Museum of Flight ..................................................... 1 

James Hermanson, Ph.D., Chair, Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, University of Washington ............................................................................ 4 

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 6 

Michael Greenwood, Senior Manager, Aerospace Academic Alignment Team, 

The Boeing Company ........................................................................................... 7 

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 9 

Mark Sieber, Plant Leader, GE Aviation—Yakima .............................................. 12 

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 14 

Randall Julin, General Manager, Absolute Aviation Services, Inc. .................... 15 

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 18 

Jim Bearden, Administrative Assistant to the President, Aerospace Machinists Industrial District Lodge 751, International Association of Machinists 

and Aerospace Workers ....................................................................................... 29 

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 30 

Reba Gilman, Chief Executive Officer and Principal, Aviation High School ...... 35 

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 37 

Cyndi Schaeffer, Executive Director, Business Training Center, Edmonds 

Community College .............................................................................................. 40 

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 43 

Joe Dunlap, Ed.D., President, Spokane Community College ............................... 45 

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 47 

Laura Hopkins, Executive Director, Aerospace Joint Apprenticeship Committee .................................................................................................................... 49 

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 51 

Tom McCarty, President, Society of Professional Engineering Employees in 

Aerospace .............................................................................................................. 52 

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 54 

(1) 

THE AVIATION WORKFORCE: 

INDUSTRY AND LABOR PERSPECTIVES 

ON TRAINING NEEDS AND CHALLENGES 

MONDAY, OCTOBER 24, 2011 

U.S. SENATE, SUBCOMMITTEE ON AVIATION OPERATIONS, SAFETY, AND

SECURITY, COMMITTEE ON COMMERCE, SCIENCE, AND TRANSPORTATION, Seattle, WA. 

The Subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 10:18 a.m., at William M. Allen 

Theater, Museum of Flight, 9404 East Marginal Way South, Seattle, Washington, 

Hon. Maria Cantwell, Chairman of the Subcommittee, presiding. 

STATEMENT OF DOUGLAS R. KING, PRESIDENT, 

MUSEUM OF FLIGHT 

Mr. KING. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you so 

much for coming this morning. 

My name is Doug King. I am the President of the Museum of 

Flight. And it really is an honor to welcome you to our building and 

to welcome our distinguished panelists, the Senator, and her staff 

from Washington, D.C., to look at the aerospace industry here in 

Washington State. 

You know, the Museum of Flight is honored to host this particular hearing for a couple of reasons. But I guess the main one 

is that most people think of us as a place that tells the story of 

the first century of flight. 

I hope you will get a chance while you are here to go out and 

look at some of the early ideas of flight and the gliders right outside the hall here and the aircraft that wrote that story so strongly 

here in the Northwest over the last 100 years, and literally 

changed the way people think about where they live and people 

that you relate to on a daily basis, the place you can take vacation, 

where you can do business, how you see your families, who you 

talk to, how small the world is. All of that is a result of progress 

here in aviation. 

But just telling the history isn’t nearly all that we do. We think 

it is equally important to be thinking about the next century of 

flight. We would like Seattle and the Washington area to play the 

same major role in the coming exciting things that we will see, as 

we have in the first 100 years. 

And so, exciting young people, making sure that they have the 

opportunity and the skills, the support that they need to think 

about aviation careers, that is the second major mission of the Museum of Flight. The people who will write that story are in classVerDate Nov 24 2008 14:24 Mar 30, 2012 Jkt 073541 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 S:\GPO\DOCS\73541.TXT SCOM1 PsN: JACKIE
2 

rooms around our region today. They are eager to work in the industry if we can get them excited. 

We look forward to partnering with those of you who are in the 

field of encouraging and educating, getting young people ready for 

industry and for all the kinds of jobs that are related to aviation. 

We hope that we will be able to tell their story as well in the coming years. 

So we hope you enjoy being here today. Please don’t hesitate to 

ask any of us any questions about the museum, and enjoy your 

time here. 

Now it is my honor to introduce the panel or, excuse me, the 

hearing on ‘‘The Aviation Workforce: Training Needs and Challenges.’’ Senator Maria Cantwell. 

[Applause.] 

OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. MARIA CANTWELL, 

U.S. SENATOR FROM WASHINGTON 

Senator CANTWELL. Thank you. 

I want to call to order this field hearing of the Senate Commerce 

Committee’s Subcommittee on Aviation Operations, Safety, and Security. 

And Doug, thank you very much for allowing us to be here today 

and for your ongoing work and focus on aviation education and the 

workforce of tomorrow. 

I want to thank our two panels of witnesses that are here today 

to talk about this very important subject, and I just want to thank 

Doug for being here and the museum for being so kind to host us. 

You know, this really is one of the finest museums in the country 

in its significant aircraft and spacecraft holdings. If you haven’t 

had a chance to visit, please do so. 

And some of the exhibits are located in the red barn. The reason 

I mention that is the red barn is where Bill Boeing started the 

company on the Duwamish River nearly 100 years ago today—100 

years ago—to build seaplanes. And it is this kind of aerospace leadership that today’s discussion is all about—how we continue that 

leadership. 

Because, literally, we are at a crossroads. We face a perfect 

storm in the demand for a skilled aerospace workforce. We have 

three dominant forces coming together at once. 

First, there is an increased demand for aerospace products. Boeing, obviously, over the next 20 years, will be producing more than 

33,000 commercial aircraft at a market value of $4 trillion. 

Second, we need to adapt to exciting new technologies that require workers to learn new skills, and these include things like 

composite manufacturing. 

And three, we need to be prepared to face a wave of projected 

retirements over the next decade. Here, in Washington State, the 

International Association of Machinists projects that 10,000 of its 

members will retire over the next decade. 

So this perfect storm means we need more skilled workers, and 

Washington needs to fill more than 21,000 new aerospace jobs over 

the next decade to meet employer demands. And this is according 

to the Washington State Council on Aerospace. 

3 

Nationally, the broader aerospace industry has to hire about 

32,000 workers just this year and 22,000 next year, according to 

Aviation Week workforce study analysis that was done in 2011. 

Today’s Aviation Subcommittee hearing is about training our 

workforce and stepping up to that challenge, and it is about America’s competitiveness in aviation manufacturing. This is a pivotal 

point for the competitiveness of America’s aerospace industry. 

We are facing increasing competition on the global stage from 

Europe and Canada, China, Brazil, Russia, and other countries. 

And over the past decade, other countries have increased their investment in domestic aircraft manufacturing. This direct government investment has helped companies like Airbus challenge, obviously, the hard work that men and women are doing right here in 

Puget Sound. 

If the U.S. is going to remain the leader in global aviation markets, then we need to continue to close the skill gap. America needs 

thousands more skilled workers to fill aerospace opportunities. So 

we know that aerospace is a huge driver for our national economy, 

and it employs over 600,000 Americans and accounts for over $2 

billion in revenue, and general aviation manufacturing accounts for 

over 120,000 of those jobs. 

So we want to talk today about the aerospace industry from a 

perspective of our State and local community, with over 150 different firms that are here and 650 in total that are part of the supply chain reaching all 28 counties in our state. And we want to talk 

about the forecast for the future and how that demand will mean 

that we have to educate more individuals to take advantage of this 

unique opportunity. 

Washingtonians want Boeing to build all of these planes—the 

tanker, the 787, the 777, the 747, the 737, the 737 MAX—right 

here in Washington State. But to do this, we need to continue to 

make sure this is the best place to build airplanes, and one aspect 

of that is to make sure that we have a workforce that is ready to 

perform. 

High production rates mean that we also have to have a supply 

base that can continue to be effective at hiring the right people and 

getting the productivity that we need. There are a number of common workforce issues facing the aviation industry and aerospace 

cluster, and we are going to talk about some of those today—an 

aging workforce, a challenge of current job openings and the skill 

gap that exists, how to make current training programs more responsive to the employers and what industry needs, how to get 

more students interested and trained in the occupations and trades 

necessary to support aerospace industry in their future needs, and 

how to increase the participation of women and underrepresented 

minorities in the area of the industry. 

So we are here today to lay out the successes that we have had 

in training and to highlight the strategies that we need to move 

forward. So I want to thank our panelists for being with us today. 

We will have two panels this morning. 

The first one more of a broader perspective by industry and academics, and the second by those involved in training the workforce 

in specific skills through a variety of education and training proVerDate Nov 24 2008 14:24 Mar 30, 2012 Jkt 073541 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 S:\GPO\DOCS\73541.TXT SCOM1 PsN: JACKIE
4 

grams and representation from the employee side of what they 

view as the work skills and critical issues of the future. 

So I am going to turn to our first panel and again welcome them 

and thank them for participating in this. We are going to hear from 

Mr. Michael Green—let us see. Sorry. We are going to start with 

Mr. Hermanson, who is the Chair of the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics at the University of Washington. He will 

be followed by Mr. Greenwood, who is the Aerospace Academic 

Alignment Team Senior Manager for the Boeing Company. 

Then followed by him will be Mr. Sieber, who is with GE Aviation and the Plant Leader there. And last, Randall Julin, who is 

with Absolute Aviation Services and General Manager of that company. 

So, again, thank you very much for being here, and Mr. 

Hermanson, we will start off with your testimony. 

STATEMENT OF JAMES HERMANSON, PH.D., CHAIR, 

DEPARTMENT OF AERONAUTICS AND ASTRONAUTICS, 

UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON 

Dr. HERMANSON. Thank you very much. 

Good morning. Thank you, Senator. It is a pleasure to be here. 

I am Jim Hermanson from the University of Washington, and 

these are my remarks. 

The American aerospace industry understands the highly competitive international aviation environment of today, and that 

might be Boeing versus Airbus, GE versus Rolls-Royce, represented 

in part by the panelists here. This Subcommittee also clearly does 

understand this, and I am very happy to be here to share my perspectives on one key issue aspect of meeting this challenge, our engineering workforce. In particular, how we might work together to 

better meet the workforce needs of the aerospace industry in the 

United States. 

I would say that the issue of guaranteeing a strong force of 

skilled workers to fill the aerospace jobs of the future has at least 

two key aspects, quantity and quality. Let me address the issue of 

quantity first. 

Speaking from the standpoint of the Department of Aeronautics 

and Astronautics at the University of Washington, we are facing 

substantial challenges in expanding the size of our programs to 

meet the increasing demand for graduates trained in aerospace engineering. This is partly an issue of the infrastructure needed to 

accommodate the number of students. 

Many good students are being turned away from our program 

due to class size limits, which arise for that reason. Perhaps more 

critically, there is a need for more university faculty and staff if 

programs are to grow to meet the increasing demand for graduates. 

We are being severely strained by the economic downturn and 

budget austerity that this is forcing on the State of Washington. 

Budget cutbacks have forced, for example, significant staff layoffs, 

the cancellation of laboratory and other courses, and have severely 

restricted our ability to hire new faculty. 

Staffing issues directly impact program quality and, therefore, 

the quality of our graduates. We need to be able to hire and retain 

more top-quality faculty and support staff. Our graduate programs 

5 

depend directly on the expertise and research opportunities afforded by working with top-caliber aerospace experts on cuttingedge research projects. 

Our undergraduate program also benefits from the teaching provided by world-class faculty experts in aerospace. To attract and retain these people, we need an environment that provides a solid research and educational infrastructure, as well as funding that supports their research and educational activities. The Federal Government has a clear ongoing role to play here through the funding 

of research, which is key to sustaining major universities, such as 

the UW, that seek to grow and graduate the necessary new aerospace engineers. 

I have sometimes heard with dismay a comment to the effect 

that aerospace is a mature technology and, therefore, not in any 

great need of research. I would like to emphatically state that this 

is not true. 

Although we can routinely and safely cross continents and oceans 

in high-capacity jetliners, carry out amazing and effective aviation 

military missions, there are serious challenges ahead for aerospace. 

These challenges include meeting increasingly stringent requirements for low noise and exhaust emissions, the extensive use of 

composites and other advanced materials, new strategies for aircraft controls to reduce critical airspace crowding and further increase fuel efficiency, and more. 

That aviation will remain a critical technology for both the American economy as well as its military is without question. In any 

case, the future of aviation and the institutions of higher education, 

which are the source of new engineers for the aerospace workforce, 

depend on a strong level of Federal support. The direct Federal 

support for students, whether it is in the form of students’ grants, 

fellowships, or loans, also remains vital. 

Increasing the quality of aerospace graduates and their effectiveness in the workforce is not, however, simply an issue of State and 

Federal funding. To truly increase such quality, in my opinion, also 

calls for increasing collaboration between university and industry 

in the areas of education and research. 

There is already a significant degree of interaction between the 

two entities. For example, many of our students undertake co-ops 

and internships in industry, a clearly beneficial experience for the 

students and the host company alike. From the university side, I 

think we need to increase the amount of business-related training 

we offer to students to increase their effectiveness as they begin 

their careers in aerospace. 

I believe that Government can play a vital role in strengthening 

the connections between university and industry. As one example, 

some years ago, the National Science Foundation introduced the 

concept of broader impact into its engineering research proposal requirements. The expectation is that each product produce not only 

excellent science but contribute to society in other ways, such as 

by innovations in education, K through 12 outreach, or encouraging 

underrepresented minorities, which I would add is a major source 

of new talent for science and engineering. 

In the same spirit, perhaps similar expectations for similar industry involvement could be implemented, where appropriate, as 

6 

part of federally sponsored research programs in science and engineering. One example of such a program is the NSF GOALI program, which directly promotes university-industry partnerships. 

One challenge is that though a clear commitment to excellence 

in aerospace is common to both academia and industry, their missions are different. Fundamentally, the focus of an academic unit 

is on education, research, and training; that of industry on development, commercialization, and production. Forming effective partnerships, therefore, requires leadership and commitment from both 

industry and academia to work jointly to strengthen the education 

of our new aerospace professionals. 

To summarize, I would say that what is needed to strengthen the 

quality and quantity of new engineers entering the aerospace workforce is not merely to increase State and Federal funding of universities, though that is clearly important, but develop and implement 

mechanisms for greatly increasing the degree of academic-industry 

partnering in the United States. 

Thank you very much for giving me this opportunity to share my 

thoughts with all of you today. 

[The prepared statement of Dr. Hermanson follows:] 

PREPARED STATEMENT OF JAMES HERMANSON, PH.D., CHAIR, DEPARTMENT OF AERONAUTICS AND ASTRONAUTICS, UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON

The U.S. competitiveness in Aerospace can no longer be taken for granted in the 

international aerospace market. There was a time, up to the early 1980s, when Boeing was widely recognized to be the world leader in commercial aviation, playing 

a dominant role in the aviation marketplace. By the 1990s it was clear that that 

picture had changed. Airbus was demonstrating that it could produce commercial 

airplanes which were extremely competitive in performance, quality, and cost-effectiveness. Although the American aerospace industry understands that, I am not so 

certain that American society as a whole appreciates the full scope of the highly 

technical challenges we face as a nation. This Committee clearly does, and I am 

very happy to be here to share my perspectives on one key aspect of meeting these 

challenges: our engineering workforce, in particular, how we might work together 

to better meet the workforce needs of the aerospace industry in the United States. 

I would say that the issue of guaranteeing a strong force of skilled workers to fill 

the aerospace jobs of the future has at least two key aspects: quantity and quality. 

Let me address the issue of quantity first. 

Speaking from the standpoint of the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics 

at the University of Washington, we are facing substantial challenges on the issue 

of expanding the size of our programs to meet the increasing demand for graduates 

trained in aerospace engineering. To an extent, this is an issue of the infrastructure 

and facilities needed to accommodate the number of students. Many good students 

are being turned away from our program due to class size limits which arise for 

these reasons. Perhaps more critically, there is a need for more university personnel 

if programs are to grow to meet the increasing demand for engineering graduates, 

thus more professors, instructors, and more support staff are required. The University is being severely strained by the economic downturn and the budget austerity 

that it is forcing on the government of the State of Washington. Budget cutbacks 

have forced, for example, significant staff layoffs, the cancellation of laboratory and 

other courses, and have severely restricted our ability to hire new faculty. 

These staffing challenges tie directly into the issue of program quality, which in 

turn directly impacts the quality of our graduates. The UW needs to be able to hire 

and retain top-quality faculty and support staff, given that the UW is a world-class, 

major research university. Our graduate programs, which produce master’s and doctoral degrees in aerospace engineering, depend directly on the expertise and research opportunities afforded by working with top-caliber aerospace experts on cutting-edge aerospace research projects. Our undergraduate program in aeronautics 

and astronautics also benefits from the teaching provided by world-class faculty experts in aerospace. To attract, and retain, these experts we need an environment 

that provides a solid research and educational infrastructure, as well as funding 

possibilities that allow the faculty to successfully conduct their research and eduVerDate Nov 24 2008 14:24 Mar 30, 2012 Jkt 073541 PO 00000 Frm 00010 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6621 S:\GPO\DOCS\73541.TXT SCOM1 PsN: JACKIE
7 

cational activities. The Federal Government has a clear, ongoing role to play here, 

through the funding of research. Ensuring robust Federal funding of research in engineering and science is key to sustaining major universities such as the UW. The 

success of universities is, in turn, essential for graduating the necessary new aerospace engineers. 

Regarding support for research in aerospace, I have sometimes heard, with dismay, a comment to the effect that aerospace is a ‘‘mature’’ technology, and not in 

any great need of new research. I would like to emphatically state that this is not 

true. While it is true that we can routinely and safely cross continents and oceans 

in high-capacity jetliners, carry out amazing and effective aviation military missions, and successfully launch spacecraft into earth orbit and beyond, there are serious challenges ahead for aerospace in the coming decades. These include meeting 

increasingly stringent requirements for low noise and exhaust emissions, the extensive use of composites and other advanced materials, new strategies for aircraft controls to reduce critical airspace crowding and further increase fuel efficiency, and 

more. That aviation will remain a critical technology for both the American economy 

as well as its military is without question. In any case, the future of aviation, and 

of the institutions of higher education which are the source of new engineers for the 

aerospace workforce, depends on a strong level of Federal support. Furthermore, direct Federal support for students, whether it is in the form of student grants, fellowships, or loans, is also vitally important to this mission and must be continued, and 

strengthened. 

Increasing the quality of our aerospace graduates and their effectiveness in the 

workforce is not, however, simply an issue of state and Federal funding. To truly 

increase the effectiveness of new graduates entering the engineering workforce, in 

my opinion, calls for increasing collaboration between university and industry in the 

areas of education and research. There is already a significant degree of connection 

between the two entities. For example, many of our students undertake co-ops and 

internships in industry, a clearly beneficial experience for the students and the host 

company alike. From the university side, I think we need to increase the amount 

of business-related training we offer to students to increase their effectiveness as 

they begin their careers in industry. 

I believe government can play a vital role in further increasing and strengthening 

the connections between university and industry. As one example, some years ago 

the National Science Foundation introduced a concept of ‘‘broader impact’’ into its 

engineering research proposal requirements. The expectation is that the funded 

projects result not only in excellent science, but contribute meaningfully to other aspects of intellectual activity, such as innovations in education, K–12 outreach, and 

encouraging under-represented minorities (a major source of new talent for science 

and engineering)—all important and positive activities in aerospace engineering 

education. In the same spirit perhaps similar expectations for significant industry 

involvement could be implemented, where appropriate, as part of federally-sponsored research programs in science and engineering. One example of such a program 

is the NSF GOALI program, which directly promotes university-industry partnerships. This kind of program should be strengthened and expanded. 

One challenge is that though a clear commitment to excellence in aerospace is 

common to both academia and industry, their missions are different. Fundamentally, the focus of an academic unit is on education, research, and training; that of 

industry, on development, commercialization, and production. Forming effective 

partnerships requires leadership and commitment from both industry and academia 

to work jointly to strengthen the education of our new aerospace professionals. 

To briefly summarize, I would say that what is needed to strengthen the quantity 

and quality of new engineers entering the aerospace workforce is not merely to increase state and Federal funding of universities, though that is clearly important, 

but to develop and implement mechanisms for greatly increasing the degree of academic-industry partnering in the U.S. 

Thank you very much for giving me the opportunity to share my thoughts with 

you today. 

Senator CANTWELL. Thank you, Mr. Hermanson. 

We will go now to Mr. Greenwood. 

STATEMENT OF MICHAEL GREENWOOD, SENIOR MANAGER, 

AEROSPACE ACADEMIC ALIGNMENT TEAM, THE BOEING 

COMPANY 

Mr. GREENWOOD. Thank you. 

8 

Good morning, Senator Cantwell. My name is Michael Greenwood. I am a Senior Manager with Boeing Company. I work within 

Boeing Commercial Airplanes Group, supporting training, integration, and workforce development. 

Thank you very much for the opportunity today to share my 

thoughts about the training needs of the aviation workforce. Today, 

I would like to highlight the workforce growth that we are experiencing at the Boeing Company and the strategies that we are 

using, that we are developing a pipeline of skilled workers for the 

future. 

This has been a tremendous year for the Boeing Company. In 

February, we won the intense competition to build the U.S. Air 

Force’s next tanker. And just recently, we delivered two new airplane models, the 787 and the 747–8. None of this would have been 

possible without our talented workforce. It is clear that our people 

are our competitive advantage. 

This year alone, Boeing added more than 5,000 people to its 

workforce in our State, bringing the total workforce in Washington 

to over 80,000 employees. 

In order to continue to attract and retain the most talented and 

diverse workforce tomorrow, we need to inspire the next generation 

of youth today. Our mission is to excite today’s youth about careers 

in aerospace and manufacturing well before they are ready to enter 

the workforce. We need to change the perception that aerospace 

and manufacturing jobs are dirty jobs or grimy jobs. 

The reality is that these are high-tech, challenging, fulfilling jobs 

that pay a family wage. These careers include engineers, technical 

support, and our aircraft assembly workforce. 

By engaging with students, teachers, guidance counselors, administrators, parents, and mentors, we are working to improve the 

perception of aerospace and manufacturing jobs here in Washington and across the Nation. To this end, we are working closely 

with our IAM labor partners at the IAM District 751 and also the 

Washington State Office of Superintendent for Public Instruction. 

We are visiting the 13 high school skills centers located across 

our state. We want to have our passionate and knowledgeable Boeing workers visit students and teachers in their classrooms. By allowing them to inspire our children in the classroom with handson projects, videos, and be guest speakers, we hope to ignite the excitement in Washington State’s youth to pursue meaningful careers 

that will provide them with living-wage jobs for years to come. 

Partnerships with academia, labor, Government, and industry 

have been and will continue to be an integral piece in our strategy. 

I want to highlight some of our highly successful partnerships. 

First, the Center of Excellence for Aerospace and Advanced Materials Manufacturing. The Center of Excellence serves as a focal 

point, bringing together our community and technical colleges and 

our industry partners. This effort brings all of the stakeholders together in one place to define curriculum aligned to industry needs. 

This collaborative approach is critical to our continued success. 

Another example of our academic collaboration can be seen at the 

Washington Aerospace Training and Research Center. Just completing its first year, this industry-driven training program has 

quite an impact thus far. To date, the center has graduated over 

9 

400 students with certificates in aerospace disciplines. Almost 300 

of those students have received job offers or are working for the 

Boeing Company or other suppliers today. 

The curriculum developed at the WATR Center is now being deployed at Renton Technical College, who just started their aerospace assembly mechanic certificate program in September. I personally visited the campus last Friday and met the students in the 

hands-on lab area. They were so excited about learning new skills 

that would prepare them for jobs in our industry. 

Multiple training programs at other colleges are underway, from 

Vancouver to Bellingham, across the state to Spokane and Yakima, 

providing students with the necessary skills to enter our workforce. 

Other benchmark programs that are making a difference, too, include AJAC, the Aerospace Joint Apprenticeship Committee, which 

provides our State citizens an opportunity to learn new skills 

through apprenticeship. 

As a graduate of a machining apprenticeship program, I can personally endorse the value these programs provide not only to the 

students, but to our industry’s suppliers as well. 

Senator Cantwell, I want to make special note here of the unprecedented support we have received from the U.S. Department of 

Labor. Thank you, Senator Cantwell, for your help in securing the 

generous $20 million grant that will benefit aerospace training 

across our state. 

This grant will provide training to thousands of workers over the 

next 3 years. To support this investment, Boeing has partnered 

with our state’s colleges to define critical skill areas that will be 

required in the next several years. These include advanced manufacturing and machining, aircraft assembly, airframe and power 

plant, composites, and electronics. 

Each of these focus areas will receive support from Boeing subject matter experts who will advise on the necessary skills for 

entry-level workers in those jobs. The schools will translate those 

skills into common curriculum that will be deployed across the 

state. This collaboration amongst colleges is unprecedented and ensures that the funding helps as many students as possible. 

In closing, as an industry, we have a lot of work ahead of us to 

develop the workforce that will sustain our growth into the future. 

The investments that we make today need to be the right investments that align the needs of the workers and the industry. With 

your continued support, we will work together to narrow the skills 

gap and put people to work. 

With that, I look forward to hearing the testimony from the rest 

of the panel, and I am happy to answer any questions that the 

committee may have. 

[The prepared statement of Mr. Greenwood follows:] 

PREPARED STATEMENT OF MICHAEL GREENWOOD, SENIOR MANAGER, 

AEROSPACE ACADEMIC ALIGNMENT TEAM, THE BOEING COMPANY

Good morning, Senator Cantwell, and members of the Subcommittee. My name 

is Michael Greenwood, Senior Manager for Boeing Commercial Aircraft Manufacturing and Quality supporting Training Integration and Workforce Development. 

Thank you very much for the opportunity today to share my thoughts about the 

training needs of the aviation workforce. 

10 

We are all acutely aware of the state of the economy and unemployment in the 

United States and here in Washington State. Today I would like to highlight opportunities for workforce growth and sustainable job creation across the aviation industry and improvements that we at the Boeing Company are making in the education 

and training sectors to ensure that we have skilled people to fill future aviation jobs. 

Through collaborative partnerships with Federal, state and local governments; academia; labor and industry, The Boeing Company is focusing its efforts in developing 

a qualified and skilled workforce to ensure we remain the world leader in the aviation market—a market that is growing and becoming increasingly more competitive. 

I want to make special note here of the unprecedented support we have received 

from the U.S. Department of Labor through the grant it recently awarded to the 

Air Washington consortium in support of Aerospace workforce development in 

Washington State. Thank you, madam chair, for your assistance in securing this 

critical investment in our collective future. Our collaboration across sectors will ensure that these valuable resources are focused on the most efficient and sustainable 

programs supporting workforce development for the industry. 

I would like to focus on a few main actions that are vital to the continued success 

of the aviation workforce in the coming years. Collectively, we must: 

• Continue to invest in education and training programs to support the technical 

skill set required for the aerospace industry. 

• Connect academia with industry to define skills needed for the jobs of tomorrow 

and develop short-term training programs to ensure job seekers get into the 

workforce quickly. 

• Encourage and invest in experiential learning through shop classes, vocational 

education, internships and apprenticeships. 

• Engage all demographics including students in our K–12 system, unemployed 

workers and veterans. 

These actions are imperative to our joint success in supporting a vibrant and wellprepared workforce for the aerospace and manufacturing industries in the United 

States. 

Boeing is Growing and Creating Jobs 

As a company, Boeing is growing and hiring skilled talent. We will require knowledgeable workers from many trades to fill our workforce in the years to come. In 

Washington, Boeing jobs equate to jobs throughout the region; for every job that 

Boeing creates, it supports 3 additional jobs in the community. 

This year has marked many tremendous milestones for Boeing: in February we 

won the intense competition to build the KC–46—the U.S. Air Force’s next tanker, 

in September we delivered the first 787 to Al Nippon Airways, and this month 

marked the first delivery of the new 747–8 to Cargolux. These milestones alone do 

not ensure our success. If we cannot provide airplanes in the time frames required 

by our customers it is likely they will look to other manufacturers to satisfy their 

fleet needs So as the business grows, we must also increase our capacity by growing 

our workforce to create the products our customers demand. 

To keep up with market demand for single-aisle airplanes, the 737 program will 

increase production to 42 airplanes per month by mid–2014. A 33 percent increase 

from the current rate of 31.5 airplanes per month. Over the next 2 years, Boeing 

will increase the production rate for each of its other commercial aircraft including 

the 747, 767, 777 and 787. 

Boeing’s highly skilled workforce is a key asset to developing and delivering the 

world’s greatest aerospace products. Boeing employment levels continue to increase, 

fueled largely by the earlier mentioned strong demand for commercial airplanes. 

Boeing added more than 7,000 people to its workforce in Washington State since the 

beginning of year. This brings our total workforce in Washington to over 80,000 

workers! It is clear that our people are our strategic advantage. 

The Workforce of Tomorrow 

To attract and retain the most talented and diverse workforce of tomorrow, we 

need to inspire the next generation of youth today. Just as the race to the moon 

inspired the youth of generations past, our mission is to excite today’s youth about 

careers in aerospace and manufacturing well before they are ready to enter the 

workforce. By engaging with students, teachers, guidance counselors, administrators, parents and mentors we are working to improve the perception of aerospace 

and manufacturing jobs in the United States. 

We need to change the perception that these are ‘‘dirty jobs’’ into one that reflects 

reality: that these are high-tech, challenging, fulfilling jobs that pay a family wage. 

We want to demonstrate that the aerospace industry is a place where students can 

11 

apply their math and science skills in new ways that are fun and innovative, where 

veterans can apply the skills they learned in the field, and where people can make 

a meaningful career for themselves. 

In Washington State, we are engaging with Career Technical Educators responsible for vocational education in K–12 to build manufacturing career path programs 

which will provide students a defined course of study to prepare them for careers 

in Aerospace and Manufacturing. This year, we partnered with Yakima Valley Technical Skills Center to deploy a new aviation and manufacturing curriculum for 11th 

and 12th grade students. The purpose of the YV Tech curriculum pilot is to develop 

the foundation for a long-term, sustainable aerospace and manufacturing curriculum 

and associated career pathways that meet the needs of students, industry, labor, 

and Washington State. This pilot will serve as the model for future skill center initiatives in Washington State. We plan to launch a similar program with the SnoIsle Tech Skills Center in Everett, Washington early next year. 

Partnering with the IAM and the Washington State Office of the Superintendent 

for Public Instruction, we are scheduling visits to K–12 classrooms, shop classes, 

skill centers and career guidance counselors. We want to get our passionate and 

knowledgeable workers into the classroom to show young people the benefits of an 

aerospace and manufacturing career. With hands-on projects, videos and guest 

speakers we hope to ignite the excitement and unleash the passion in Washington 

State’s youth to pursue exciting careers that will provide them with living wage jobs 

for years to come and become the aerospace and manufacturing workforce for our 

future as a nation. 

Collaborative Partnerships 

Partnerships with K–12 education, higher education institutions, labor unions, 

government and industry have been, and will continue to be, an integral piece in 

our strategy for developing a strong pipeline of workers for aerospace and manufacturing jobs. 

Workforce development, in support of a growing aerospace workforce, is one area 

where Boeing and our labor partners are clearly aligned. Boeing and the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) District Lodge 751 

are working jointly on workforce development in Washington State. Together we are 

partnering in the public sector, concentrating on outreach activities geared toward 

the K–12 classroom. By sharing our passion for our industry with the youth of the 

region, our goal is to ignite excitement about manufacturing and aerospace, and to 

encourage our young people to consider careers in these fields. 

We have a strong alliance with the Washington State Board for Community and 

Technical Colleges, both collectively and with individual colleges. Two examples of 

industry collaboration are worth mentioning. 

First, the Washington Aerospace Training and Research Center, or WATR Center. 

At the WATR Center, industry and academia are collaborating to provide students 

with the skills our industry demands. Just completing its first year of operation, 

this industry-driven training program has developed an impressive track record. To 

date the WATR Center has graduated 442 students with certificates in aerospace 

related disciplines. Of those graduates, 414 have applied to Boeing, 371 have received interviews and 258 have offers or have already started. This is a hugely successful program that demonstrates a direct benefit to the students as well as to Boeing. 

Second, the Center of Excellence (CoE) for Aerospace and Advanced Materials 

Manufacturing. The CoE serves as a focal point, bringing together community and 

technical colleges, local business and industry partners in the fields of aerospace 

and advanced materials manufacturing. This effort ensures the efficient use of state 

resources for workforce development, bringing all of the stakeholders together at one 

table to identify curricula aligned to manufacturing job skills. This industry-driven 

approach to skills definition and training is imperative to our continued success. 

In partnership with CoE, Boeing has conducted workshops targeting critical hourly job codes for Composites, Electrical, Machining and Assembly Mechanic. These 

workshops included Boeing subject matter experts that represented the skill needs 

for Boeing along with the participation of many local Community and Technical College. As a result, curriculum has been identified and developed to support the critical skill needs above with local Washington State Community and Technical Colleges. 

Air Washington 

Thank you Senator Cantwell for your help in supporting the generous $20 million 

dollar Department of Labor grant that will benefit aerospace training in the State 

of Washington. We support the grant proposal from Air Washington, a consortium 

12 

of community and technical colleges and aerospace training organizations across the 

state that will benefit from this grant. This funding is a catalyst for the creation 

of short-term training programs to support the training of 2,600 workers over a 

three year period. The training capacity that this grant will create will be a benefit 

for Boeing as well as for our suppliers and other industry partners in the region. 

Boeing has partnered with Air Washington and our state’s community colleges to 

define critical skills that will be required in the next 5–10 years. The consortium 

will be focusing its efforts in five skill areas critical to aerospace and manufacturing 

in Washington State: Advanced Manufacturing, Aircraft Assembly, Airframe and 

Powerplant (A&P), Composites and Electronics. Each of these focus areas will receive support from Boeing subject-matter experts who will advise on the required 

skills necessary for entry-level workers in those jobs. Leaders for each program will 

translate those skills into a common curriculum that will be deployed across the colleges for all aerospace and advanced manufacturing courses. In addition, Boeing, as 

an industry advisor, will continue to play a role to the consortium schools. We will 

continue to work internally with our employment teams to elevate awareness of 

these programs. 

Closing 

As a company and as an industry we have a lot of work ahead of us to develop 

the workforce that will sustain our growth into the future. Boeing will continue to 

work collaboratively across institutional boundaries to encourage people of all backgrounds, ages and demographics to join us in an exciting career in aerospace and 

manufacturing. I see a bright future for the aviation industry in the United States, 

and with your continued support we will work together to narrow the skills gap and 

put people to work. 

Thank you for your interest in securing the future of the aerospace workforce. I 

look forward to hearing the testimony from the rest of the panel and I am happy 

to answer any questions that the Committee may have. 

Senator CANTWELL. Thank you, Mr. Greenwood. 

And now we will go to Mr. Sieber, correct? And thank you for 

being here. 

STATEMENT OF MARK SIEBER, PLANT LEADER, 

GE AVIATION—YAKIMA 

Mr. SIEBER. Senator Cantwell, my name is Mark Sieber, and I 

am the Plant Leader for GE Aviation’s Yakima, Washington, site. 

Thank you for inviting me to speak about the growing need to 

develop a well-trained aviation workforce. 

GE’s history of powering the world’s aircraft features more than 

90 years of innovation. Not just limited to aircraft engines, GE 

Aviation Systems business is a leading global provider of electrical 

power systems, avionics, actuation and landing gear, aerostructures, and propeller systems. 

The Yakima plant was founded in 1921 by two brothers making 

irrigation and coal furnace equipment. Our transition to aerospace 

started in 1941, when Boeing recognized that our manufacturing 

capabilities could be used to produce parts for the B–17. In the decades that followed, the aerospace industry grew, and the Yakima 

facility expanded. 

By the late 1960s, the facility had its own design engineering capability, and we started developing our niche in locking actuators. 

In 2007, the Yakima plant became part of the GE Aviation family 

and part of GE Aviation Systems business unit. Products currently 

manufactured at Yakima include hold-back bars used to launch aircraft like F–18 from aircraft carriers, hydraulic fuses used to protect aircraft control systems, and actuators used for landing gear. 

Our Yakima plant provides 270 high-tech aerospace manufacturing and engineering jobs, with a payroll in excess of $14 million. 

13 

We are also proud to serve in our community. Last year, our employees logged more than 1,600 hours in community events. 

We are fortunate to have technology, products, and services that 

are in demand. Contracts on new programs are helping us grow, 

and having access to a well-trained, educated workforce is critical 

to our continued growth. 

The work we do in Yakima is specialized and technical. It can 

be difficult finding the expertise we need. So we invest heavily in 

training our employees. An incoming employee’s background can 

vary anywhere from zero to hundreds of hours of actual experience. 

The amount of training required varies by position and level of 

skill. 

Most of our engineers join us right out of college or from other 

aerospace companies. The majority of our manufacturing employees 

come to us from our local community. The Yakima site has historically struggled to fill positions for aerospace engineers and technicians, which are skill sets not common to central Washington. So 

we incur higher costs for recruiting outside the region and outside 

of the State. 

We have found that using a teaming approach helps increase 

worker productivity. Teaming is one of GE Aviation’s key initiatives to drive increased involvement, development, and empowerment of employees. We experience greater creativity, improved 

work processes, and increased plant performance when we maximize the diverse talents of our employees and increase their involvement in problem-solving and decisionmaking. 

We are fortunate to have a great educational institution nearby, 

such as Perry Technical Institute and Yakima Valley Community 

College. Perry Tech is a 2-year machine technology program that 

prepares students for entry-level positions making machine products. 

We participate in their program advisory committee by providing 

feedback on the skills we need, and this feedback provides guidance 

on the program’s curriculum. Summer interns and students in our 

leadership programs provide an excellent pipeline for talent, and 

this is an area where we rely heavily on our partnerships with colleges and universities. We anticipate having 15 interns in Yakima 

this summer, and 6 additional students in our operations management leadership program. 

We are proud to be a part of the GE Aviation family, which believes strongly in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education; training employees; and developing a strong 

workforce. As a leader in technology and innovation, we strongly 

value the need for tomorrow’s leaders to be equipped with skills for 

the 21st century, such as an ability to think critically and solve 

complex problems. These skills are predominantly developed in the 

mathematics and science disciplines. 

GE invests more than $1 billion annually in training and development programs, helping our employees have a greater impact in 

our business and community. 

In closing, aviation continues to be a growth industry. But in 

order to remain competitive and strong, we need a well-trained 

workforce. Continued investment for STEM education and employee training is necessary to help us fill the gap. 

14 

I thank the Committee for its time and would be happy to answer any questions later. 

[The prepared statement of Mr. Sieber follows:] 

PREPARED STATEMENT OF MARK SIEBER, PLANT LEADER, GE AVIATION—YAKIMA

Closing the Gap: The Need for Worker Training and Education 

Chairman Cantwell, Ranking Member Thune, and members of the Committee, my 

name is Mark Sieber, and I am the Plant Leader for GE Aviation’s Yakima, Washington site. Thank you for inviting me to speak about the growing need to develop 

a well-trained aviation workforce. 

GE’s history of powering the world’s aircraft features more than 90 years of innovation, from the turbo supercharger to the world’s most powerful commercial jet engine. Our innovation is not limited to aircraft engines; GE Aviation’s Systems business is a leading global provider of electrical power systems, avionics, actuation and 

landing gear, aerostructures and propeller systems. GE Aviation’s technological excellence, supported by continuing substantial investments in research and development, has been the foundation for growth, and helps to ensure quality products for 

customers. 

Yakima’s Proud History 

The Yakima plant was founded in 1921 by two brothers making irrigation and 

coal furnace equipment, products that served needs of the region’s agriculture industry. Our transition to aerospace started in 1941 when Boeing recognized that our 

manufacturing capabilities could be used to produce valves and mechanisms for the 

B–17. In the decades that followed, the aerospace industry grew and the Yakima 

facility expanded manufacturing capacity. By the late 60s, the facility had its own 

design engineering capability and we started developing our niche in locking actuators. Yakima-based engineers developed locking actuator technology that provided 

the right solutions to our customer’s needs, and we continue to evolve those solutions to use in today’s applications. In 2007, the Yakima plant became part of the 

GE Aviation family, and currently part of GE Aviation’s Systems business unit, 

which designs and sells avionics, electrical power, and mechanical systems for commercial and military aircraft. Products currently manufactured at Yakima include 

holdback bars used to launch aircraft like F18 from aircraft carriers; hydraulic fuses 

used to protect aircraft control systems on the Boeing 737, 747, and 777; and actuators used for landing gear on the V22, A380 and 787. 

Our Yakima plant currently provides 270 high tech aerospace manufacturing and engineering jobs, with payroll in excess of $14 million to central Washington economy. High tech manufacturing is not common for this region of the state, and we 

take pride in what we’ve built in this community. We are also proud to serve in 

our community. Last year, our employees logged more than 1,600 hours in events 

such as United Way’s Day of Caring, Operation Harvest community food drive, 

March for Babies, Yakima Greenway beautification activities, and construction of a 

new playground at Kiwanis Park. 

We are fortunate to have technology, products, and services that are in demand. 

Contracts on new programs like the 787 are helping us grow. Having access to a 

well-trained, educated workforce is critical to our continued growth. 

Training is Essential for Our Employees 

The work we do in Yakima is specialized and technical. It can be difficult finding 

someone who arrives with the expertise we need, so we must invest heavily in training our employees. An incoming employee’s background can vary anywhere from 0 

to more than 100 hours of actual experience, so the amount of training that is required varies by position and level of skill coming in the door. 

Most of our engineers join us right out of college or from other aerospace companies. The majority of our manufacturing employees come to us from our local community population, where some of our hiring decision is based on their mechanical 

aptitude and if they are trainable for machinist and assembly positions. 

Finding Qualified Workers Can Be Difficult 

The Yakima site has historically struggled to fill positions for qualified, experienced aerospace engineers and technicians, which are skillsets that are not common 

to central Washington. Winning the contracts for A380 in 2002, and 787 in 2004, 

drove requirement to expand our engineering and manufacturing capacity . . . more 

than the handful we could recruit locally. We incur a higher cost for recruiting outside the region, and outside the state. 

15 

Teaming Increases Productivity 

We have found that using a teaming approach helps to increase worker productivity. Teaming is one of GE Aviation’s key initiatives to drive increased involvement, development and empowerment of employees. Within our teams, we experience greater creativity, improved work processes and increased plant performance 

when we maximize the diverse talents of our employees and increase their involvement in problem solving and decision-making. Yakima currently has nearly 40 percent of our workforce organized in high-performance teams and we continue to move 

in this direction with all employees. 

As a global company, our talent must reflect the communities we serve and with 

whom we do business. We are actively engaged in various outreach efforts, some of 

which include the City of Yakima’s Worksource job fair, South East Community 

Center’s 100 jobs for 100 kids’ summer program, and the New Vision Yakima county 

development association. 

Our diversity within GE is about the power of the mix—the strength that results 

from an internal and external team with varied experiences, backgrounds and 

styles. 

University Partnerships Are Key 

We are fortunate to have great educational institutions nearby, such as Perry 

Technical Institute and Yakima Valley Community College. 

Perry Technical Institute has a two-year Machine Technology program that prepares students for entry-level positions making machined products. We participate 

in their Program Advisory Committee by providing feedback on the skills we need 

and this feedback provides guidance on the program’s curriculum. 

Summer interns and students in our leadership programs provide an excellent 

pipeline for talent and this is an area where we rely heavily on our partnerships 

with colleges and universities. We anticipate having 15 interns in Yakima this summer and six additional students in our Operations Management Leadership Program (OMLP’s). 

Central Washington University, Washington State University and Montana State 

University are also strong proponents of ours who help provide talented interns and 

engineering candidates. 

GE Aviation’s Commitment to STEM Education and Workforce Training 

We are proud to be a part of the GE Aviation family, which believes strongly in 

Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education, training its 

employees, and developing a strong workforce. As a leader in technology and innovation, we strongly value the need for tomorrow’s leaders to be equipped with skills 

for the 21st century, such as an ability to think critically and solve complex problems creatively and collaboratively. These skills are predominately developed in the 

mathematics and science disciplines. 

Regarding training, GE is investing more than $1 billion annually in our training 

and development programs, helping our employees to have a greater impact in our 

businesses and community. 

In closing, aviation continues to be a growth industry, but in order to remain competitive and strong we need a well trained workforce. Continued investment for 

STEM education and employee training is necessary to help us fill the gap. 

I thank the Committee for its time and would be happy to answer any questions. 

Senator CANTWELL. Thank you, Mr. Sieber, and we will get to 

that in a minute. 

But, Mr. Julin, you are our last speaker on this panel. Thank you 

for being here. We appreciate it. Look forward to your testimony. 

STATEMENT OF RANDALL JULIN, GENERAL MANAGER, 

ABSOLUTE AVIATION SERVICES, INC. 

Mr. JULIN. Thank you for inviting us. 

Senator CANTWELL. You may need to pull that microphone a little closer, too. 

Mr. JULIN. Thank you, Senator Cantwell. Is it—— 

My message is similar to what we have heard across the 

panel—— 

16 

Senator CANTWELL. Why don’t you just try to pull it a little bit 

closer, or maybe it is the next microphone? 

Mr. JULIN. Maybe it is not on. 

Senator CANTWELL. Next to you. 

Mr. JULIN. Hello? 

Senator CANTWELL. Yes. 

Mr. JULIN. Yes. My message is very similar to what we have already heard. I am the General Manager of Absolute Aviation Services. We are a small veteran-owned business on the east side of the 

state. 

I represent also not just myself, but probably 60-plus companies 

on the east side of the State that are in the aerospace business. 

Yes, there is aerospace in eastern Washington. 

It has been stated, but just to reiterate, the significant shortfall 

of trained aerospace workers that is projected over the next decade, 

the shortfall has already begun. An example is the recent hiring of 

almost 6,000 workers at Boeing, creating a domino effect in the industry. These workers, in many instances, are hired from other 

aerospace companies in the area, who must then backfill those positions. 

This is in addition to those workers needed to support the aerospace companies to accommodate the increased production rates. 

Being able to fill these positions with trained workers is not only 

important to Washington State, but also to our national interests. 

Although the shortage of engineers is well documented, as Mr. 

Hermanson has indicated, my personal experience at Absolute 

Aviation and also input from other Washington-based companies 

indicate that the workforce requirements ratio for technicians, mechanics, machinists—2-year program students—to engineers, basically a 4-year degree, is roughly 7 to 1, respectively, and sometimes 

higher, depending on the industry. 

More than 60 percent of the high school students currently do 

not go on to college directly from high school. We need to focus our 

recruiting efforts on this group. 

Although these students may not be immediate candidates for a 

4-year engineering degree, they are prime candidates for 2-year associate degrees or certificate programs. We cannot afford to 

marginalize or discount the innate talents and potential of this 

group of students. 

So, what do we need to do? We need to motivate and inspire 

these students early on, at the junior high and high school level, 

to pursue careers in aerospace. But how do we do that? I mean, one 

important way to do that is to show the relevancy of science, technology, engineering, and math, a STEM education, with practical, 

real world examples of its application. 

One of the programs that I have seen successful on the east side 

is Teach the Teachers program, where we bring teachers into the 

business, maybe 20, 25 teachers at a time. And we actually let 

them do hands on so that they can connect and understand what 

we are doing in industry. 

They take that message back to the classroom. That provides 

some inspiration. I have seen that program work. 

High school job fairs, where we are actually out there interfacing, 

talking to the students. High school skills centers. We have lost, it 

17 

seems like, in high school—I grew up with shop classes. You don’t 

see that much anymore. But the skills centers is one avenue, and 

I think a cost-effective one, to connect high school students to those 

jobs and skills that would be more associated with the community 

college system. 

Aviation High School, which we are going to hear about a little 

bit later. I think it is great. I am not sure we have the number of 

students on the east side to do something like that now, but that 

is a great program. 

It is important that it be industry driven, that the education— 

and it is up to us as industry leaders to ensure that what is being 

taught is what we need. I am seeing a lot of enthusiasm and efforts 

from the educators and academia to engage with industry, I think, 

and that is absolutely critical. 

You have got the Washington Aerospace Training and Research 

Center; Inland Northwest Aerospace Technology Center, which is 

being built; aerospace program equipment grants; and also the 

community college centers of excellence. And the next panel, I 

think, will talk some more on that. 

Industry must be actively engaged in the design of aerospace 

training facilities, equipment purchases, and curriculum development and implementation. I have got a list of things that are— 

where industry can get involved. Community college advisory 

boards, involved in the technology centers and their curriculum, as 

Mr. Greenwood has indicated with Boeing actively involved in that. 

Apprenticeship programs, which will be discussed by Laura Hopkins a little bit later. The FAA Centers of Excellence. One thing 

that I would like to see is that I would like to see industry connect 

with academia, with the educational system to be able to offer 

some of the state-of-the-art equipment, access to state-of-the-art 

equipment maybe on a second or third shift. I haven’t seen really 

that initiative at this point, but I think that that is a way that— 

a very cost-effective way, maybe on a third shift where it is not 

being utilized, that we get students in to train on the equipment 

that is absolutely state-of-the-art. 

In conclusion, I think that, you know, as I indicated, although it 

would be wonderful if all of our high school students were bound 

for a 4-year college to become engineers and scientists, that is not 

reality. We need to convince students, teachers, and parents that 

a 2-year degree is respectable and can lead to family wage jobs and 

a fulfilling career, as Mr. Greenwood has indicated. 

Through industry and Government partnerships, we need to recruit and train our next generation of aerospace workers. To do 

that, we must increase support for aerospace and aviation-related 

education programs and institutions by providing coordination at 

the local, State, and Federal level; funding current programs; and 

finding and implementing best practices. We need to go across the 

State and the country to find out what is working. 

We can develop State-wide and national synergies to meet our 

current and future aerospace workforce needs. 

Thank you. 

[The prepared statement of Mr. Julin follows:] 

18 

PREPARED STATEMENT OF RANDALL JULIN, GENERAL MANAGER, 

ABSOLUTE AVIATION SERVICES, INC. 

Challenges 

A significant shortfall of trained aerospace workers is projected over the next decade, both in Washington State and nationally. This shortfall has already begun. As 

an example, the recent hiring of 6,000 workers at Boeing creates a domino effect 

on the industry. These workers, in many instances, are hired from other aerospace 

companies in the area, who must then backfill those positions. This is in addition 

to those workers needed by the supporting aerospace companies to accommodate the 

increased production rates. Being able to fill these positions with trained workers 

is not only important to Washington State, but is also in our national interests. 

Although the shortage of engineers is well documented, my personal experience 

at Absolute Aviation Services and also input from other Washington-based companies indicates that the workforce requirements ratio for technicians/mechanics/machinists (2 year degrees) to engineers (4 year degrees) is roughly 7 to 1 (respectively) 

or higher depending on the industry. 

More than 60 percent of High School students currently do not go on to college 

directly from High School. We need to focus our recruiting efforts on this group. Although these students may not be immediate candidates for a 4 year engineering 

degree, they are prime candidates for 2 year Associate Degrees or certificate programs. We cannot afford to marginalize or discount the innate talents and potential 

of this group of students. 

Student Outreach 

Motivate and inspire students in Junior High and High School to pursue a career 

in Aerospace. 

Show relevancy of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) education 

with practical real world examples of its application 

Examples in Washington State: 

Teach the Teachers 

High School Job Fairs 

High School Skills Centers focusing on aerospace manufacturing technologies, 

e.g., machining, welding, plating, non-destructive testing (NDT), computer programming, electronics, etc. 

Aviation High School—Des Moines, WA 

Technical Training Facilities 

Industry driven state-of-the-art Technical Training facilities are required to prepare students for Aerospace employment. 

Examples in Washington State: 

Washington Aerospace Training and Research Center—Everett, WA 

Inland Northwest Aerospace Technology Center (in work)—Spokane, WA 

Aerospace Program Equipment Grants to Community Colleges 

Community College Centers of Excellence for Aerospace, Technology, and Manufacturing—Edmonds and Everett Community Colleges 

Industry/Government Partnerships 

Industry must be actively engaged in the design of aerospace training facilities, 

equipment purchases, and curriculum development and implementation: 

Community College Advisory Boards 

Aerospace Technology Centers and their curriculum 

Apprenticeship Programs—Mobile Training Center 

Government/Educational System partnerships for Research and Development— 

University of Washington (Washington Technology Center) and Washington 

State University (Applied Sciences Lab) 

FAA Centers of Excellence—Joint Center for Advanced Material Research at 

the University of Washington (UW) 

Department of Agriculture grants to the University of Washington and Washington State University for aviation bio-fuel research 

Need to develop new programs in which modern/state-of-the-art equipment currently being used by industry is made accessible for hands-on training to Community Colleges and Technical Centers 

19 

Conclusions 

Future aerospace workforce shortfalls are well documented. In order to meet those 

needs, we must not miss an opportunity to connect with the majority of High School 

students who will not continue their education after High School unless we intercede to raise the visibility of and actively promote aerospace careers. By connecting 

with these students early, we can motivate them to continue their education, whether it is a 2 year technical degree or a 4 year engineering degree. Although it would 

be wonderful if all of our High School students were bound to attend a 4 year college 

and become engineers and scientists, that is not reality. We must convince students, 

teachers, and parents that a 2 year degree is respectable and can lead to a family 

wage job and a fulfilling career. 

Through Industry and Government partnerships, we need to recruit and train our 

next generation of aerospace workers. To do that we must increase support for aerospace and aviation related education programs and institutions. By providing coordination at the local, state, and Federal level, funding current programs, and finding 

and implementing best practices, we can develop statewide and national synergies 

to meet our current and future aerospace workforce needs. 

Senator CANTWELL. Well, thank you, Mr. Julin. 

And again, we are here today, obviously, to talk about how the 

United States keeps its competitive edge in aerospace manufacturing. And there is no better place to come to, to talk about that 

than right here in Seattle because we are a leader in aerospace 

manufacturing. 

I think the panelists have outlined some of the challenges that 

we face, the fact that we are facing a shortage of the skill level that 

we need to continue to meet the demand. And obviously, we are 

going to hear from the second panel about how we have a great 

number of employees who are going to be retiring in the next 10 

years that is going to make this challenging for us. 

So I wanted to start with you, Mr. Greenwood. You mentioned 

in your testimony that the workforce or you said people are really 

one of our competitive advantages. I wonder if you could expound 

on that because I think a lot of people in this room think that the 

workforce is our competitive advantage, and obviously, that we 

have seen competition come from lots of different places. 

Could you describe what you mean by that and how we could 

continue to use that as a way to keep manufacturing jobs not just 

here, but in the United States in general? 

Mr. GREENWOOD. Sure. 

Senator CANTWELL. And you might have to pull that microphone 

closer to you. 

Mr. GREENWOOD. Yes. Thank you. 

A couple of comments. One is that here in the State of Washington, we have 80,000 employees or more that work for the Boeing 

Company, and they certainly come to work every day with the technical skills needed to design, engineer, and build the world’s greatest aircraft. And those technical skills are certainly important as 

we move into the future, continuing to build the workforce for tomorrow. 

I did want to just touch a little bit on one point, and that is, is 

that while those technical skills are certainly important—and we 

heard that here from the panel this morning—so are the interpersonal skills, the ability to work collaboratively in a teaming environment. And I think we heard a couple of panelists talk about 

the ability to solve complex problems in the work area. That hapVerDate Nov 24 2008 14:24 Mar 30, 2012 Jkt 073541 PO 00000 Frm 00023 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6601 S:\GPO\DOCS\73541.TXT SCOM1 PsN: JACKIE
20 

pens today with our workforce here in Washington at our Boeing 

facilities and across the Nation and around the world. 

So as we move forward and build that workforce for tomorrow, 

it is important to continue that and that when we build those technical capabilities, we also remember that the interpersonal skills of 

the workforce, the ability to work in a very complex environment 

is just as important. 

Senator CANTWELL. Do you think we have a competitive advantage today on the skill level of our workforce in the U.S. over other 

countries? 

Mr. GREENWOOD. I would say yes, and I would say the challenge 

is, as we have all talked this morning, to continue that. There are 

some challenges that need to be addressed. 

Senator CANTWELL. One of the things, Mr. Hermanson, you 

talked about is how industry and academia have to work closer together on solving some of those challenges or issues. And you mentioned NSF GOALI program. Could you elaborate on what kind of 

collaboration would help us? 

Dr. HERMANSON. Well, I think there are a number of things. And 

first, if I might digress a minute and follow up on Michael’s comment? Strengthening the students’ perceptions and their experiences in teamwork and people skills is absolutely vital, and we 

stress that throughout our program. 

We have a very intensive project-based component where the students learn early on in their junior year and again in their senior 

year to conduct projects, many of these in direct collaboration with 

Boeing and other industries, to form that teaming environment, to 

do their project reporting, to meet their objectives, to meet their 

schedule. And the key importance of interacting with other professionals is emphasized. 

The GOALI program is one program NSF has to encourage— 

from that program’s standpoint, it is more directed at encouraging 

academicians to spend some time in industry, as part of that program, which I think is valuable. What I am saying is I think beyond that, it would be good to more broadly encourage industry to 

engage with universities in research programs, in education programs, along the lines that we have heard here. 

How can we get more students out into industry as part of their 

education, as part of internships? If it is something after hours or 

whatever, get them exposed to the equipment and technology. How 

can we get more industrial experience and exposure to our projects 

and more involvement from local companies in working with the 

students as part of their formal projects? 

And then, beyond that, what can we do to strengthen the connection between industry and academia in the area of research? Can 

we carry out more joint programs? How can that be encouraged so 

we can formulate a research portfolio at the university, for example, that connects strongly with Boeing and GE and other aerospace leading companies to conduct research that advances the 

state-of-the-art, gives our students the cutting-edge experience, and 

also addresses practical industrial problems? 

As I said in my statement, the challenge there is sometimes industry wants different things. Their focus is more on development 

and product and having prototypes and deliverables. Our focus is 

21 

more on education. But there are ways that both can be worked in 

the context of trying new programs so we get the basic research 

and an exploratory development and also get real connection with 

industrial problems. 

Senator CANTWELL. Are not composites a clear example of this? 

Where the AMTAS Center worked with industry on what needed 

to be done—the research behind composites? 

Dr. HERMANSON. I think that is a stellar example. And the FAA 

is involved, of course. So you have a triangle between Federal agencies, you know, through the Department of Transportation, FAA, 

helping guide the overall scope of the program; extensive industrial 

involvement; and then university involvement for the research end. 

So those sorts of programs, I think they are terrific and absolutely 

should be encouraged. 

Senator CANTWELL. Mr. Julin, you mentioned the ability to have 

young people actually take advantage of some of the equipment, 

state-of-the-art machines. You are part of our larger supply chain 

and serve a variety of end customers. 

I am assuming that as Boeing continues to hire out, part of your 

challenge and Mr. Sieber’s challenge is maintaining the workforce 

that you have, that they are an attractive source of employees. As 

Boeing hires to fill their needs, oftentimes, you might be left with 

having to then fill the new vacancies created. Is that true? Is that 

a challenge? 

Mr. JULIN. Certainly, that is a challenge. And I think it all goes 

back to where we get our students from and getting students into 

aerospace and aviation at an early point in their time. An early 

time meaning junior high and high school, and that is the inspiration that we need to foster at that early age. 

And because, basically, in the supply chain, we end up doing a 

lot of the training for the Boeing Company. And that is understandable. We know how the process works. On the eastern side of 

the State, we are not as dependent on the Boeing Company, but 

there is a lot of aerospace that is going on on the eastern side. 

It was mentioned that the partnership between the universities 

and business, and I think that there are a couple examples. The 

Washington Technology Center is one. I personally have been able 

to use what they call the ‘‘Applied Sciences Lab’’ at Washington 

State University. So that a small business can access what the universities have in terms of equipment. They have got the scientists 

and the engineers there. And we are able to tap into that from a 

small business standpoint, very reasonably priced, and we need to 

foster more of those kinds of relationships. 

But some of it is just industry knowing that it is available. I 

think that is a lot of the problem. It is a matter of publicizing and 

making it known to industry that these resources are out there and 

they can be accessed. 

Senator CANTWELL. Mr. Sieber, did you want to comment on 

that, on how the production rates at Boeing sometimes make it 

challenging for part of the supply chain to then keep a skilled 

workforce? 

Mr. SIEBER. Definitely, as there is a rapid increase, it puts pressure on us to try to find qualified people quickly to fill the positions. I will say that I actually think some of the mix between our 

22 

company and Boeing, people moving back and forth, is actually 

healthy. That we have definitely seen people come to us from Boeing that have shared ideas, and I am certain that we have had people that have gone from GE to Boeing that have shared ideas. 

And I actually think that adds to the strength of our U.S. aviation industry, the ability to have a certain amount of movement of 

people and the sharing of best practices within that. 

The comment on the increased production rate, as I mentioned 

in my comments, the ability to find and hire people definitely puts 

pressure on us. And we reach out to pretty significant distances to 

find people and bring them into the region. Engineers certainly 

through the universities, but also skilled machinists and that type 

of trade. 

So I think it is important to continue to encourage children, especially in the high school before they get into the thoughts of college. 

Not every high school student has the interest to become an engineer. But I think we do need to reinforce that some of the skilled 

trades offer a wonderful career with a lot of challenges and the 

abilities to collaborate together and contribute to our aerospace industry. 

Senator CANTWELL. All of you mentioned the apprentice programs, in addition to engineering programs generally. I know that 

part of the Department of Labor grant was for, I think, five different certificates. Do we have an ongoing process of identifying or 

shifting the skills within various certificate areas? Or do we know 

what is going to be for the next 20 years, and we can really go to 

town on how to match up not just this certificate program, but at 

the K through 12 level of encouraging students to be interested? 

I don’t know who wants to talk about that. 

Mr. SIEBER. I will jump in on it. I mean, the—— 

Senator CANTWELL. I mean, I heard a story as we were touring 

South Seattle Community College on this the other day, and someone mentioned that we might be falling behind as it relates to Europe on some of the qualifications standards for certificates just because the FAA needs to also modernize its requirements. That 

some of the manufacturing being taught was still done with wood 

when we need to move toward composites and that they have been 

able to streamline that a little faster in Europe. 

So my question is, do we know what these certificate needs are 

for the future? Are they going to stay the same, or are they going 

to continue to change? And do we need to take that into account? 

Mr. SIEBER. Well, I think it is actually a little bit of a mix because there are some very basic machining skills, inspection skills, 

assembly skills that require a person with the interest with a 

mathematics background to be able to adapt to. Certainly, the 

newer machine tools have higher levels of computer equipment to 

work with them. Certainly, the newer inspection equipment also offers a challenge. 

With that said, there are skills like composites, and I have 

worked in composites a bit, and there is a learning involved with 

that technology that is different. And it is not something that is 

normally available to most high schools, being able to work with 

the autoclaves and the pressurized equipment, both from a temperature or pressure. There is a lot of cost involved with the equipVerDate Nov 24 2008 14:24 Mar 30, 2012 Jkt 073541 PO 00000 Frm 00026 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6601 S:\GPO\DOCS\73541.TXT SCOM1 PsN: JACKIE
23 

ment. So it is very specialized, certainly not as available as a machine tool or a micrometer. 

So I think we need to make sure that we have got the basics. 

Even with composites, you still need to know how to read a gauge, 

how to read a blueprint, how to do math. And then be able to build 

on that with some of the more specialized skills, but recognize it 

is not going to be something that every school can offer. 

Dr. HERMANSON. If I could add to that from the university’s point 

of view? Composite materials and structures is huge. It is a landmark area. It is truly changing aviation with the increased performance that you can get from these materials. We have a very 

active program in composite materials and structures and offer actually a master’s degree in that, as well as a certificate program. 

So for half of the answer, I would agree with Mr. Sieber, that 

composite materials and structures is going to remain an active 

topic probably for the next 20 years or so. But I think another one 

that is emerging and not necessarily the only one is, as a Nation, 

we need to again renew our focus on energy as a key topic. 

And we have these energy crises periodically. We have been talking about energy as a nation for 30-plus years. But what is our energy strategy? Where are we going? 

And we have seen with the recent boost in oil prices and fuel 

prices, again the discussion has increased on alternative fuels from 

an economic standpoint. But I think for the sustainability of aviation, alternative fuels is going to be a key area that in a sense that 

energy issues have been around for a long time. We have all grown 

up thinking and talking about energy. 

Maybe, pun intended, we need to renew our discussion of energy 

and open this up to get the resources and start new programs in 

alternative fuels. Aviation being one example, but this spills over 

into transportation more broadly and into the national economy. 

So my vision might be along that 10 years from now we have a 

dynamic composite materials and structures program. We have an 

equally dynamic energy and aviation—green aviation, sustainable 

aviation, alternative fuels program—with also clear benefits to the 

economy and to the Nation. So that is another area. 

Mr. GREENWOOD. I would just add to Mr. Sieber’s comments 

around your question around certificate training. Certainly, technology changes. Machine tool technology, the way we fabricate 

might change over time. But some of those core foundational skills 

that were good 80 years ago, were good 20 years ago, are still needed today. 

The math skills, the ability to measure, the ability to be collaborative—all those foundational skills around manufacturing, we 

need to kind of revisit that, I think, across the State with young 

people. We often say this internally, and it is true, that young kids 

today don’t spend time in the garage with their father or their 

uncle. And in some cases, they haven’t even been to the garage. 

So there is an opportunity to kind of revisit some of that core 

training for our kids. 

Senator CANTWELL. I think a lot have been on flight simulator, 

though, haven’t they? 

[Laughter.] 

Mr. GREENWOOD. That is true. True. 

24 

Senator CANTWELL. Mr. Greenwood, you mentioned yourself the 

apprentice program and that you were part of that. How do we encourage students to take an interest in aerospace? Do you think 

this is a chicken and an egg that if we create apprentice slots, the 

people will come? Or do you think this is an issue of we also have 

to attract people into these careers and reposition it? I think you 

mentioned some of that in your testimony. 

Mr. GREENWOOD. Yes. I think we do need to create excitement 

with our kids today about what is manufacturing and assembly, 

how do those airplanes get built, how do we manufacture products 

of all kinds. And I think our efforts to get back into the classroom, 

have our Boeing employees and other suppliers visit the classroom 

and inspire young kids into this career is step one. 

And I think that there are some really great examples of things 

we can share with kids. We can show videos. We can conduct tours. 

We can really excite today’s youth about the opportunity to get into 

manufacturing. 

Senator CANTWELL. Any of the other panelists on that point, on 

the apprentice program and what we need to do? Obviously, the 

Department of Labor grant will create some capacity to do more 

education. But if you look at these numbers, at least of what Mr. 

Greenwood and Mr. Hermanson are saying about the future demand, I mean, we are talking thousands of job slots here that we 

are going to have to fill and a retirement of machinists that are 

going to accentuate that. 

Mr. JULIN. And I think the problem is really twofold. One, you 

have got education in the basic skills, and we all know that that 

is important. But how do you get the more advanced skills also? 

And I think we also have to look at whether we are training in the 

right things? 

Well, it is really a moving target. It is very dynamic. And the 

only way that we are going to ensure that we are training in the 

right things is to make sure that we have that industry-academiaeducation system link, and we can’t calibrate today and say, OK, 

we have got everything in place, and we are going to meet all the 

needs of industry, and then just forget about it and move on. Because it has to be an ongoing process. 

We do have some systems now where industry is talking to the 

educators. There are systems set up. But we have to keep an emphasis on that. We can’t just go back to old ways of just educating 

the way we always have been. 

And that, really, I think comes down to equipment. I was involved on an advisory panel where we allocated some funds for 

equipment, and that is great. But that equipment is probably going 

to be there for decades. 

It is going to go out of date. The only way to stay up with it is 

to have the education system have access to industry’s latest and 

greatest technology, and we have to figure that one out. 

Senator CANTWELL. How about that, Mr. Greenwood? Is that 

something possible, the kind of third shift access to technology for 

training purposes or inspirational purposes? 

Mr. GREENWOOD. I think it is a really great point. We have certainly talked about the possibility of internships not only for students, but for teachers and members of academia. I don’t think we 

25 

are at a place now where we are ready to commit to that, but I 

think the idea is excellent, a very good idea. 

Senator CANTWELL. Because, Mr. Julin, you have quite a few internship programs, right, and leadership programs at your facility? 

Or Mr. Sieber, is that you, that you do quite a bit of that? 

Mr. SIEBER. We have internships, not so much on the apprenticeships. And for us, that is a win-win because we embed our interns 

right into the job, working with our engineers, working with our 

shop. They are part of our team, and we see a lot of excitement because we share quite a bit with them. They are there to learn. 

They are there to contribute. 

But then we also tie them into other parts of the business so that 

they can see the higher picture. As an example for myself, on a 

weekly basis, we will meet with all the other plants within the 

aviation system. And my interns will come in and sit as part of 

that panel with me on the videoconference and be able to hear 

what is going on in other parts of the industry as well. 

So I think a key to keep that excitement is to not pigeonhole 

them too much, to really let them see that there is a number of 

opportunities that the experience will contribute to. 

Dr. HERMANSON. If I could add onto that? You know, going back 

to the educational point of view, I think another thing, another condition we should acknowledge is that education has changed a lot 

in the last 20 years. And the biggest single thing I would point to 

is the emergence of the Internet and rapid exchange of information 

and the computer skills. 

One result is the incoming students, the undergraduates that we 

get, generally are extremely familiar with computers. They are 

very comfortable with computing. They can run their own codes. 

They can run multiple programs that is simply not an issue. Their 

computational skills are very strong. 

But at the same time, I think there has been a certain erosion 

of the emphasis of fundamentals in the sense that we emphasize 

the fundamentals in our program, but you can do so much with 

high-speed computing now, the nature of how students’ thinking is 

changed to an extent. And in conversations I have had with my 

counterparts in industry, a theme that has come up again and 

again is those computer skills and those capabilities are good, but 

we need fundamentals. 

In the industry, we need a solid understanding of the fundamentals, which is one thing that we stress, on top of more hands-on experience that we have also heard from this panel. More opportunities to get involved, to take apart that car engine and reinstall it, 

and that sort of thing. 

And then the third category, of course, that we have already 

talked about is the increasing emphasis on people skills that we already do through the projects we run. So my comment to my industrial counterparts would be that anything we can do in developing 

these kinds of joint programs that impresses upon students the 

need for fundamental understanding, hands-on experience, and 

then building their people skills are important. And we appreciate 

your computer skills. You know, young people, they are terrific, but 

these other skills have to backbone all of those. 

26 

Mr. GREENWOOD. If I could just add one more comment on your 

mentioned apprenticeship, and there is absolutely a place for 6,000, 

8,000, and 10,000-hour apprenticeship programs in the trades. I 

think, and I know we are going to hear from in the second panel 

talk about short-term certificate training. Absolutely vital method 

for getting entry-level workers into our industry. 

And that could be as short as 12 weeks or 2 quarters or even a 

year or 2, but certainly around apprenticeship, there is value in the 

traditional 4- and 5-year apprenticeship programs. 

Senator CANTWELL. And we have a gap there is what you are 

saying? 

Mr. GREENWOOD. I am not necessarily saying we have a gap 

there. I am saying that the value those programs bring to our industry is immense. 

Senator CANTWELL. OK. We are going to turn to our second panel 

in a minute, but I thought maybe I could close with this question 

to you all. Since you have all chosen this area of expertise, something lit the lamp for you. If you had 30 seconds to say why young 

people should be interested in this career or why we should—why 

they should pursue this. 

I feel like we are, again, at this incredible moment where we 

have now seen the production schedule that Boeing is going to pursue and won some victories, as the tanker and composites. And yet 

we need to instill in the next generation how critically important, 

even in this near term, it is going to be get a skilled workforce. 

And so, I just wonder if you, from you have said, don’t forget the 

basic training, don’t forget the fundamentals, don’t forget that you 

have to start that at the K through 12 level and then take some 

of those students and put them into the apprentice and the certificate programs. You are reminding us that we have to start early 

at this, but how do we do this every day. 

I don’t know. Maybe you should put a little sign outside. ‘‘Interested in a future job in aerospace? Come find out more.’’ Because, 

obviously, Mr. King is funneling a lot of enthusiasm through the 

doors here of the museum every day. 

But what would you say to Washingtonians, to Americans, about 

the critical importance of this sector, which is really one of the 

leading manufacturing sectors the United States has, and we want 

to retain it. So what would you say? You can take a minute. You 

don’t have to limit yourself to 30 seconds. 

What would your message be to encourage young people to consider this career and to the existing workforce that maybe is unemployed right now, to get down to one of these community colleges, 

to get involved in one of these certificate programs? 

Dr. HERMANSON. Well, I think two parts. First, I think the challenge is that the aerospace environment has changed in a sense. 

I grew up during the Apollo era, and my colleagues have had similar experiences. So the 1970s, it was a time of great transformation. We were going to the Moon. We were doing entirely new 

things. 

I am emphasizing space a little bit here, there was a clear excitement there as a nation, you know, that we rallied around that, and 

the entire country could focus on aerospace as a wonderful, exciting 

field. 

27 

We may have lost that a little bit in that we are not going to the 

Moon. The Space Shuttle has just been retired. We seem to be on 

a little bit of a plateau. So I think the challenge is to energize the 

generation now to recognize aviation is still exciting. There are still 

major transformations coming. 

Perhaps focuses there might be globalization, to get America, you 

know, get our State and our Nation to focus on the global world 

we are in. The world is really shrinking. We need transportation. 

We need communication. Aviation is a key player in that and that 

there are more transformations coming to generate excitement. 

And then the other area, of course, is energy, its clear dependence. Aviation plays a role in that as well. So if we focus on those 

challenges as new generations of aircraft continue to emerge, perhaps we can help regenerate that expectation. And at the same 

time again, NASA eventually will be going back to the Moon, asteroids, and Mars, hopefully, and that will also help. 

A final one is, of course, the Cold War, which at least underscored the critical need for aviation technology. Not that we would 

welcome another cold war, but that was a factor in increasing level 

of aerospace awareness. 

Senator CANTWELL. Mr. Greenwood? 

Mr. GREENWOOD. Yes, I would just say, to reiterate what I said 

in my opening statement is that aerospace and manufacturing, 

these are challenging, high-tech, enjoyable jobs and career choices 

for our young people. And we talk about aerospace here today, of 

course, but a lot of the skills that students can learn will transfer 

to other industries, to other manufacturing sectors, and that really 

it is a wonderful career choice for our young people to consider. 

And again, I would say that you mentioned Washingtonians, and 

we often talk about this is that we think the messaging needs to 

be from border to border, from north, south, east, and west is that 

the messaging about the opportunities in aerospace and manufacturing needs to be clearly communicated and understood by everyone in our State. And so, manufacturing is alive and well. We build 

the world’s greatest aerospace products right here and that opportunity abounds. 

Senator CANTWELL. Great. Mr. Sieber? 

Mr. SIEBER. I will just share something shared with me many, 

many years ago was find something that you love and make a career out of it. So I think, Jim, with the museum here, as people 

come in, they are coming here to see planes. And so, maybe give 

them a pamphlet that says if you like planes, these are some of the 

careers that could exist in your future. It is not just designing 

them. It is being the machinist, being the assembler, being the inspector, being the technicians, working in aviation whether it is in 

the shop or whether it is in the office with jobs like material management or sourcing. 

The one thing I find, and I have been to a ton of aerospace firms 

over my 31-year aviation career, you walk through the shops, you 

walk through the offices, and people in aerospace love planes. They 

have planes on their desks. They have planes on their workboxes. 

They have the stickers. They are very proud of what they do. 

And for me, the passion was very early on. I just fell in love with 

planes. I went to an airport when I was a young kid and fell in 

28 

love with aviation and knew I wanted to get into it in some manner. So I think just trying to build on that love of airplanes. 

We have one heck of an opportunity because we have a growth 

industry. We are having a hard time filling jobs. We have a country 

that has people that want to work—that need to be employed, and 

we just have to marry up the people, the education, the industry. 

So I think we have that passion. 

Senator CANTWELL. Mr. Julin, any final comments? 

Mr. JULIN. It was exactly the same way with me, and it is about 

airplanes. I have been in the business for 40 years. My father was 

a pilot in the Air Force for 28 years. So I grew up going to air 

shows, and I was always around airplanes. It was a passion. 

Especially when I got my pilot’s license, I knew that aviation was 

what I wanted to make a career out in. I didn’t make a career out 

of flying, but I made a career out of aviation and aerospace. 

And I think between museums, air shows, and businesses inviting students in to see what they do, we provide the needed inspiration. Boeing is a great example of being able to ‘‘touch and feel’’ airplanes. Absolute Aviation is in a hangar with Empire Airlines. So 

I always bring the kids over to make sure that they see airplanes, 

too. They see what the end product is. 

Bottom line, I think it is about the passion for airplanes. There 

is a certain appeal, and it is an exotic and exciting industry. The 

people that are in it are not here for the money. We are here because it is about airplanes. 

Senator CANTWELL. Great. Thank you, gentlemen, very much, 

and we will look forward to working with you. And again, thank 

you for your testimony today. 

This information that is gathered here goes to our full Committee back in Washington, D.C., and we leave the record open in 

case any of my colleagues also want to chime in and pose questions 

to you through writing. 

So thank you for being here today, and we will look forward to 

talk to you more about some of the solutions and possibilities. 

So we are going to move to the second panel now, and if they 

would come up to the stage and join us? That is Tom McCarty, who 

is the President of the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace; Mr. Jim Bearden, Administrative Assistant, District Lodge 751 for the Machinists; Ms. Laura Hopkins, who is the 

Executive Director of the Aerospace Joint Apprenticeship Committee; Ms. Cyndi Schaeffer, Executive Director of Edmonds Community College Business and Training Center; Mr. Joe Dunlap, 

President of Spokane Community College; and Ms. Reba Gilman, 

Principal and Chief Executive Officer of the Aviation High School. 

So welcome to the second panel. That is definitely a quicker shift 

than what we are able to do in Washington, D.C., changing. So we 

are already ahead of the game. We know how to move in and out. 

OK. We are going to start with you, Mr. Bearden. Thank you. 

Welcome to all the panelists. Thank you for spending time here 

this morning to talk about this important issue. And many of you 

are obviously involved in many of the aspects we discussed on the 

first panel. But thank you for your leadership in this important 

area. 

And Mr. Bearden, we will start with you. 

29 

STATEMENT OF JIM BEARDEN, ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT 

TO THE PRESIDENT, AEROSPACE MACHINISTS INDUSTRIAL 

DISTRICT LODGE 751, INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF 

MACHINISTS AND AEROSPACE WORKERS 

Mr. BEARDEN. Well, good morning, Senator Cantwell. 

Senator CANTWELL. And again, just you might have to pull those 

microphones. They are a little sensitive. You might have to pull 

them closer to you. 

Mr. BEARDEN. How is that? 

Senator CANTWELL. Yes. 

Mr. BEARDEN. I can taste it. 

Senator CANTWELL. Perfect. 

[Laughter.] 

Senator CANTWELL. Perfect. 

Mr. BEARDEN. Well, good morning. I am here today to talk about 

opportunities that I had as a young person that truly, in most 

cases, don’t exist today and to encourage you, as leaders in Congress, to take steps to reenergize the teaching of vocational skills 

in our Nation’s schools. 

Starting in the seventh grade, I had the option of taking a variety of vocational classes. I took metal shop, auto shop, wood shop. 

By the time I reached high school, I already knew that I enjoyed 

working with my hands and that I was good at it. 

As a result, I focused on learning a skilled trade. After I graduated, I worked in several union shops and eventually came to 

work at Boeing and later became a union officer. It has been a rewarding career. I have been able to buy a home and raise a family. 

I pay my taxes and support numerous charities. 

But as I have raised my family, I have seen changes in educational philosophy. Our schools have promoted the idea that everybody needs to go to college, get a 4-year degree, and become a 

software engineer or a banker. Most of our local schools don’t offer 

classes in shop anymore. When these shop courses are offered, they 

are offered at vocational skills centers. 

Now the instruction at those places may be good, but it is only 

offered to high school juniors and seniors. I would argue that by 

the time a teenage boy or girl is a junior in high school, it may be 

too late. If our young people aren’t exposed to careers in the trades 

at an early age, they will never have the chance to consider whether a manufacturing job could be their life’s work. 

That is a shame. It is possible to make a good living as a manufacturing worker in aerospace without going to college. That is particularly true if you are working in a union job. Our union members at Boeing earn on average more than $58,000 a year, and they 

have good benefits, too. 

Now while you don’t have to hold a college degree to become an 

aerospace machinist, you do need to have a high-quality education. 

There are a lot of vocational skills to be learned and physical skills 

to master. Young people must learn how to use complex tools like 

computerized numerical control machines or the digital displays 

that have replaced blueprints. 

They will also need classroom learning. Our machinist union 

members have to have good skills in math, geometry, trigonometry, 

and beginning calculus. They need to understand principles of 

30 

physics, metallurgy, and electricity, and the new composite technologies. 

Sadly, one of the biggest problems we have finding candidates for 

our joint IAM-Boeing apprenticeship program is that many of the 

people who apply lack these basic academic skills. To fix this, we 

need to start making serious investment in our schools and in 

other workforce training programs like apprenticeships. 

But we need to start immediately. Our union has 30,000 members across Washington State, and about a third of them will retire 

in the next 5 to 7 years. It is a big challenge. Even if every community college in Washington and every regional high school vocational center graduated 100 aerospace workers a year, that still 

would only equal about half of the workers Boeing needs. 

And that is not taking into account the needs of more than 600 

aerospace suppliers around Washington State—companies like Triumph Composites in Spokane, Pexco in Union Gap, and Hytek Finishes in Kent. Having this kind of workforce is essential to our Nation’s future. Aerospace, we know, is a key part of our national security. Aerospace is also essential to the economic security of the 

United States. It is well known that Boeing is America’s numberone exporter. 

But the industry’s biggest impact is on local economies. The 

money our union members earn gets spent at local car dealerships, 

stores, and restaurants. Their insurance benefits support local clinics and hospitals, and their pensions allow them to retire with dignity in their local communities. 

If we don’t have enough trained workers to meet the demand, 

America will lose its position as the world’s leader in aerospace, 

and we will lose all those economic advantages. I urge the Senate 

to take action quickly. We, as a nation, need more investment in 

vocational education in our local schools and in our community and 

technical colleges. We, as a nation, need to encourage a rebirth of 

manufacturing apprenticeships, and we need to improve the quality 

of math and science education in our Nation’s public schools. 

Ninety-nine percent of our children will never become investment 

bankers or Wall Street financiers. Not everyone is interested in or 

can afford college. I couldn’t. But because I had opportunities to explore vocational education options in the K through 12 system, I 

was able to find a career in manufacturing that allowed me to buy 

a home, raise a family, and contribute to my community. 

It is my duty as a union officer to make sure that the young people who come after me have that same opportunity, and it is my 

goal as an American citizen to see Government, business, and labor 

come together to support our Nation’s aerospace industry. Because 

when we do that and work together, we can’t be stopped. 

Thank you. 

[The prepared statement of Mr. Bearden follows:] 

PREPARED STATEMENT OF JIM BEARDEN, ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT TO THE

PRESIDENT, AEROSPACE MACHINISTS INDUSTRIAL DISTRICT LODGE 751, 

INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF MACHINISTS AND AEROSPACE WORKERS

Good morning, Senator Cantwell and members of the Subcommittee. My name is 

Jim Bearden, Administrative Assistant to the President for Aerospace Machinists 

District Lodge 751, which represents 45,000 active and retired aerospace workers. 

Thank you for the opportunity to address the Subcommittee. 

31 

I’m here today to talk about opportunities that I got as a young person that don’t 

exist today in America, and to encourage you, as leaders in Congress, to take steps 

to re-energize the teaching of vocational skills in our Nation’s schools. 

Without a strong commitment to this, America will lose its position as the global 

leader in aerospace manufacturing, which will lead to further declines to our Nation’s economy in general, and lost jobs for our middle class in particular. 

When I was a teenager—back in the Seventies—I had the option of taking a variety of vocational classes. I took metal shop. I took auto shop. I took wood shop. By 

the time I reached my junior year of high school, I already knew that I enjoyed 

working with my hands, and that I was good at it. As a result, I focused on preparing to learn a skilled trade. 

That led me to union jobs in Everett, at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in the 

Tri-Cities, and eventually at Boeing, where I became an Aerospace Machinists 

Union officer. 

It’s been a rewarding career. I’ve been able to buy a home and raise a family. I 

pay my taxes and I contribute to charities. 

But as I’ve raised my family here in Washington State, I’ve seen changes in educational philosophy that aren’t changes for the good. Over the past 15 years or so, 

our schools have promoted the idea that everyone needs to go to college, to get a 

four-year degree and become a software engineer or a banker. 

Most of our local schools don’t offer metal shop anymore. Many don’t offer wood 

shop. Auto shops are few and far between. 

When these shop courses are offered, they’re offered at vocational skills centers. 

The instruction at those places may be good, but it’s only offered to high school juniors and seniors. 

I’d argue that by the time a teen-aged boy or girl is a junior in high school, it’s 

too late. If our young people aren’t exposed to possible careers in manufacturing and 

other trades at an early age, they’ll never have the chance to consider whether a 

manufacturing job could be their calling, and their life’s work. 

That’s a shame. It’s possible to make a good living as a manufacturing worker 

in America, without going having a bachelor’s degree. That’s particularly true if 

you’re working in a union job. Our union members at Boeing earn, on average, more 

than $58,000 a year. They have good benefits too, the kind of health insurance that 

means they don’t have to fear bankruptcy should someone in their family be struck 

with a serious health problem. 

But while you don’t have to hold a college degree to become an aerospace Machinist, you do have need to have a high-quality education. 

There are a lot of physical skills to be learned, and manual dexterity to master. 

I recently visited a vocational skills center in Yakima where high school students 

are training for potential careers in aerospace manufacturing. The instructor there 

has his students practice for 15 minutes every day the technique for drilling holes, 

so that at the end of their 2 years of study, they can be confident in their ability 

to drill a hole straight and clean—and accurate to within a few thousands of an 

inch. 

That’s a skill they must have to succeed. Failure to do that in the workplace can 

mean an aircraft part worth tens of thousands of dollars is ruined. 

The young people also will need to learn how to use tools far more complex than 

drills. They’ll need to learn how to program computerized numerical control machines. They’ll need to know how to read the digital displays that have replaced 

blueprints. 

And while these vocational skills are essential, they’ll also need classroom learning. Our Machinists Union members have to have good skills in math—geometry 

and trigonometry in particular, but also beginning calculus. They need to understand principals of physics, metallurgy and electricity and the new composite technologies. And they need to have the soft skills that all businesses require: the ability 

to read and write, to work in groups yet be individually accountable. 

Sadly, one of the biggest problems we have finding candidates for our joint IAM/ 

Boeing apprenticeship program is that many of the people who apply lack these 

basic academic skills—particularly in math. As a result, they don’t get the chance 

to train for the top-level, highest-skill jobs that command the biggest paychecks. 

To fix this, we need to start making serious investments in our schools, and in 

other workforce training programs, like apprenticeships, which for centuries have offered young people a path toward meaningful careers in skilled trades. 

But we need to start immediately. Our union has 30,000 members across Washington State, and we estimate about a third of them will retire in the next five to 

7 years. Meanwhile, a full-fledged aerospace manufacturing apprenticeship can take 

4 years to complete. This means we only have a short window of time to help our 

32 

members pass on their skills and experience to the next generation, and to get our 

new people trained to the highest level. 

It’s going to be a tremendous challenge. The administrator in charge of that Yakima skills center told me that if every community college in Washington, and every 

high school vocational center, graduated 100 workers from aerospace training programs a year, that still would only equal half of the workers Boeing needs, to replace workers who are retiring, and to ramp up to meet the production goals the 

company has set for itself. 

And that’s not taking into account the needs of the aerospace suppliers around 

Washington State. We’ve got more than 600 of them here, companies like Triumph 

Composites in Spokane, Pexco in Union Gap and Hytek Finishes in Kent. Each of 

them does complex work that requires a highly trained, highly skilled workforce. 

Having this kind of workforce is essential to these companies’ futures—and to our 

Nation’s future. 

Aerospace, as we all know, is a key part of our national security. We have to 

maintain a deep and broad pool of skilled aerospace workers if we are to continue 

to build and maintain the military aircraft that defend our borders. 

Aerospace is also essential to economic security of the United States. It’s well 

known that Boeing is America’s No. 1 exporter, which helps us maintain our position as a leading world economy. In addition, aerospace exports have a positive impact on our Nation’s balance of trade. 

But industry’s impact on local economies is even greater—here and in places like 

Wichita and Portland and Long Beach, California, and everywhere else that aerospace workers spend their union paychecks. The money they earn building airplanes 

and airplane parts gets spent at local car dealerships and restaurants, shopping 

malls and convenience stores. Their insurance benefits support local clinics and hospitals, and their pensions allow them to retire with dignity, without being a burden 

on their families or communities. 

If we don’t have enough trained workers to meet the demand, American will lose 

our position as the world’s leader in aerospace, and we’ll lose all the global and local 

economic advantages that go along with that. 

To keep that from happening, I’d urge the Senate to take action quickly, to spur 

improvements in all forms of workforce training. We, as a nation, need more investment in vocational education in our local schools and in our community and technical colleges. We, as a nation, need to encourage a rebirth of manufacturing apprenticeships, which we in the labor movement like to call the original four-year degree. And we need to improve the quality of math and science education in our Nation’s public schools, so that our high school graduates are able to perform the highskill manufacturing work that will earn them the best standard of living. 

Ninety-nine percent of our children will never become investment bankers or Wall 

Street financiers. Not everyone is cut out for college—I wasn’t. 

But because I had opportunities to explore career choices as a skilled tradesman, 

I was able to find a career in manufacturing that allowed me to buy a home, raise 

a family and contribute to my community. It’s my duty as a union officer to make 

sure that the young people who come after me have that same opportunity, and it’s 

my goal as an American citizen to see government, business and labor come together to support our Nation’s aerospace industry and the economic benefits it creates. 

A perfect example is the recently awarded U.S. Department of Labor $20 million 

grant to the Air Washington consortium in support of aerospace workforce development in our state. I want to take this opportunity to express our sincere gratitude 

to Senator Cantwell for her assistance in securing that grant. 

Machinists Union District Lodge 751 is committed to keeping our Nation the 

world’s leader in aerospace, with Washington State at its center. We work daily 

with Boeing, other aerospace companies, elected officials, the educational institutions and workforce development councils to maintain this highly-skilled workforce, 

which is our major competitive advantage. Along with my testimony, I’ve submitted 

a power point that outlines some of the IAM’s collaborative efforts with Boeing in 

this area. 

I would encourage you as leaders in the U.S. Senate to continue and redouble 

your efforts to ensure we have the most highly-trained aerospace workers in the 

world for decades to come. 

33 


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35 

Senator CANTWELL. Thank you. 

[Applause.] 

Senator CANTWELL. We don’t usually clap at field hearings either, but that was a very poignant and precise statement. So thank 

you, Mr. Bearden. 

Ms. Gilman, thank you for being here. 

Ms. GILMAN. Thank you. 

Senator CANTWELL. We look forward to hearing about all the successes of Aviation High School and how we can expand on it. 

Thank you. 

STATEMENT OF REBA GILMAN, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER 

AND PRINCIPAL, AVIATION HIGH SCHOOL 

Ms. GILMAN. Well, thank you for inviting me to testify. 

I am Reba Gilman. I am the Principal and Chief Executive Officer of Aviation High School. 

I have had the honor of leading the high school since its inception. I have also been an administrator of a comprehensive high 

school and a State skills center, and I have worked for a large aerospace firm and owned my own business. These experiences have 

impressed upon me the critical need to prepare young Americans 

to innovate and lead in science, technology, and engineering. 

Partnering with the Museum of Flight, and as a result of a pub- lic-private partnership that raised $43.5 million, Aviation High will 

occupy a new school in 2013, right here on museum property in 

close proximity to more than 200 aerospace-related companies and 

industry professionals who are essential in mentoring and preparing our students for further education and careers. 

We are a college prep high school for students who have a passion for aviation and aerospace. It was conceived in response to the 

critical need to improve student achievement in math and science 

and to prepare students for the demands of a high-tech global 

workforce. 

Our school plays an important role in the U.S. effort to stay competitive in global air and space innovation and fill our region’s need 

for a STEM-proficient workforce. Seventy-seven percent of our students are pursuing STEM education and career pathways. Fortyeight percent pursue engineering pathways, and that is more than 

four times that of other high schools in our State. 

Our model is project-based learning, deep scientific inquiry, and 

high-stakes performance assessment in which students present and 

defend their learning to industry experts—engineers, technicians, 

and aerospace leaders who can provide real world feedback. 

Seven years after its founding, Aviation High School has developed from an experiment in public education to a proven model of 

success. Students consistently score in the top 5 percent of Washington high schools in science, math, reading, and writing, with a 

significantly higher population of students coming from low-income 

families and ethnic minority groups. 

Out of nearly 22,000 schools surveyed by U.S. News and World 

Report, our school was rated one of the top 6 schools in Washington 

State and the top 500 nationally for preparing all students for college. Average daily attendance is 96 percent, with some students 

commuting 120 miles or more a day to attend school. 

36 

Our graduation rate is 98 percent, and our graduates are being 

recruited to and accepted at places like MIT, Berkeley, and military academies. Successful sports of the mind teams, such as First 

Robotics and Science Olympiad, dominate the culture of our school. 

We opened our doors in 2004 with a freshman class of 100 students and now are over capacity with 420 students in grades 9 

through 12. Our success has resulted in nearly three times the 

number of students applying for admission than we can accept. 

Our model is research based and small by design. Our goal is not 

to become larger, but replicable to other parts of the State and the 

country. We have discussed this goal with the Federal Government 

during trips to D.C., and also we hosted a visit to Secretary of Education Arne Duncan to our school. And while there is a good deal 

of interest, there has been little agency follow up. 

I would respectfully ask that this committee to help turn the 

rhetoric from Federal agencies into action. I would like to thank 

you, Senator, along with your colleagues Congressmen Smith and 

McDermott, for securing close to $600,000 for laboratory equipment 

at the new school. I also want to applaud local employees of the 

FAA, who serve as mentors to our students and staff. 

I offer two recommendations for your consideration. First, help 

us formalize a relationship with the FAA by having the agency provide a full-time staff person to the school, offer paid internships to 

students, and help expose and familiarize our staff with cuttingedge technologies, such as UAVs, next-gen standards, et cetera. 

Second, I ask the Committee to consider working with industry, 

Federal agencies, and with us to help replicate schools like ours in 

other parts of Washington State and the country. Our students 

want to follow in the footsteps of Washingtonians who have created 

innovations that have been adopted worldwide. 

People like James Raisbeck, whose name we will place on our 

new school, a world-renowned aerodynamicist and entrepreneur 

who, among his many innovations, has created secured cockpit 

doors after the 9/11 attacks. And Joe Clark with the winglet, which 

has saved millions in fuel costs. Captain Steve Fulton, who created 

extraordinary aircraft navigation performance systems. 

And of course, Bonnie Dunbar, former Astronaut and CEO of the 

Museum of Flight, and Doug King, current CEO, President of the 

museum, who believe that a premier high school and a premier 

education museum ought to partner to inspire and prepare students to pursue STEM careers. 

Our first Aviation High School alumni are graduating from college this spring. Already some are being recruited by major commercial jet engine manufacturers and other critical players in this 

Nation’s air and space industry. We can provide more innovators 

if we replicate our model in other areas. 

Thank you for the opportunity to testify today. Our school stands 

ready to assist you in filling the STEM pipeline with the intellectual and technical capital that ensures the prominence of aerospace 

innovation in the Washington State and national economies. 

[The prepared statement of Ms. Gilman follows:] 

37 

PREPARED STATEMENT OF REBA GILMAN, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER AND PRINCIPAL, AVIATION HIGH SCHOOL

Good morning. I am Reba Gilman, Chief Executive Officer and Principal of Aviation High School. 

Thank you for holding this hearing today and inviting me to testify. 

I am a veteran educator, whose career has included teaching business and marketing, serving as an administrator of a large, comprehensive high school and as 

a Director of one of our state’s skills centers. These experiences, combined with 

working in the private sector for a major aerospace company and owning my own 

business, have led to a deep understanding of the critical needs in education and 

the workforce . . . and to the founding of Aviation High School, which l have led 

since its inception and development over the past decade. 

At Aviation High, we have hosted hundreds of visitors from different parts of the 

United States and even different countries since opening our doors in 2004. Most 

of those visitors are interested in replicating our teaching, learning, and partnership 

model. It would be an honor to host you and your committee members at our current interim site and then again when we move to our new state-of-the-art school 

that is being constructed just across the street from here and that will be ready to 

occupy in 2013. 

It is important to note that we just completed a $43.5 million capital campaign 

to construct this new school. Partnering with the Museum of Flight, the school embarked upon a public/private capital campaign that successfully culminated this 

past summer. Located on the Museum’s West-Side Campus, with the new Space 

Gallery and a future Air Transport Gallery, the school will have the best location 

imaginable. We believe that the creative, cutting edge educational programming 

that can be crafted through collaboration of our two institutions and the 200 aerospace-related entities that surround Boeing Field, including Boeing’s R&D facility, 

will be of unparalleled benefit to education and the workforce. 

We believe it is critical for theme-based, industry responsive schools to reside 

where they are closest to the resources that will help students get ready for further 

education and careers. 

Aviation High is a college prep high school where students have an affinity for 

aviation and aerospace, and it is a critical part of the U.S. effort to stay competitive 

in global air and space innovation. Aviation High students are pursuing STEM education and career pathways at nearly double the rate (77 percent) of their peers in 

other Washington State high schools . . . with 48 percent pursuing engineering 

pathways—which is about five times that of other high schools in the state. 

As I mentioned earlier, Aviation High School was conceived in 2000 in response 

to the critical need to improve student achievement in math and science to ensure 

that our graduates were prepared for the rigors of college and the demands of a 

high-tech, global workplace. A Strategic Planning team of educators, business, labor, 

and government leaders came together to address these critical needs. We were intent on creating a teaching and learning model that required students to use their 

minds well, be passionate about the work in which they were engaging, and solve 

authentic and complex problems occurring in the work place. We landed on creating 

an aviation/aerospace-themed school because Seattle, being the birthplace of modern 

aviation with a huge reliance on a STEM-proficient workforce, was the right model 

for our region. 

When our grassroots planning team proposed our model to The Superintendent 

and Board of Highline Public Schools, they embraced the concept of blending the 

best practices in career and technical education with high academic demand . . . 

and gave us a green light to move forward if we could find initial funding. We found 

it from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Sea-Tac Airport. 

We opened our doors in 2004 in rented space on the Duwamish campus of South 

Seattle Community College, just up the street from the Museum. Since our first 

year, we have been intent on perfecting our model of project-based learning, deep 

scientific inquiry, and high-stakes performance assessment in which students 

present and defend their learning to industry experts—engineers, technicians, and 

aerospace leaders who can provide the kind of feedback that is needed to inspire 

further learning and pursuit of a STEM education and career pathway. 

Aviation High currently has an enrollment of 420 students with approximately 

100 students in each grade level, 9–12. Each student is immersed in a college prep 

curriculum that makes them attractive and eligible candidates to any college of 

their choice. 

Extensive research shows that small learning communities with a focused curriculum and effective instructional practices are more likely to achieve higher results in student learning than large, comprehensive schools. Our school model is deVerDate Nov 24 2008 14:24 Mar 30, 2012 Jkt 073541 PO 00000 Frm 00041 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6621 S:\GPO\DOCS\73541.TXT SCOM1 PsN: JACKIE
38 

signed to be personalized, rigorous, and relevant. Our goal, therefore, is not to become larger but rather, replicable to other parts of the state and country that have 

similar needs. 

Aviation High teachers are a huge part of our formula for success, with 60 percent 

having experience outside of education, including engineering, computer science, research, and general aviation. 

Seven years after its founding, Aviation High School has developed from an experiment in public education to a proven model of extraordinary success: 

• Students in all four graduating classes have consistently scored in the top 5 

percent of Washington high schools in science, math, reading, and writing. AHS 

serves a significantly larger population of low-income and ethnic minority students than any other school in this category. 

• Out of nearly 22,000 schools analyzed by U.S. News & World Report in 2010, 

AHS was rated one of the top six high schools in Washington State and among 

the top 500 in the nation, for preparing all students for college. 

• Our average daily attendance rate is between 95–99 percent, which is remarkable given that some students commute 120 miles or more per day to attend 

school. AHS is a regional school that attracts students from 22 school districts. 

• Our graduation rate is 98 percent. 

• AHS ranks 8th in the State of Washington for percentage of students taking 

Advanced Placement exams. 

• Disciplinary issues are almost nonexistent—the lowest number of sanctions in 

a district of 17,000+ students. 

• 94 percent of AHS students meet or exceed the requirements for college admission as set forth by the Higher Education Coordinating Board. Students take 

4 years of math and science, 3 years of English and Social Studies/History, and 

2 years of a world language, all which include an aviation context where appropriate. 

• Graduates are being accepted to top-level colleges and post-secondary institutions in the country, including MIT, Berkeley, and military academies. Each 

graduating class has collectively earned between $1–$1.7 million in scholarship 

awards, some on full rides from organizations such as FIRST Robotics or ‘‘golden tickets’’ to university engineering programs. 

• The Washington State Legislature designated Aviation High School as a Lighthouse Model of STEM Excellence in recognition of its best practices in teaching 

and learning and stellar results in student achievement. 

• ‘‘‘Sports of the mind’’ teams dominate the culture of our school as opposed to 

athletic teams. Our FIRST Robotics, Science Olympiad, and Speech and Debate 

teams successfully compete at regional, state, and national levels. They are Ambassadors of STEM education who mentor elementary and middle school students to inspire learning and consideration of a STEM pathway. 

The successes that we have experienced over the years have resulted in nearly 

three times the number of students applying for admission than we can accept. It 

is reaffirming to know that so many young people are inspired by aviation and aerospace and want to be part of the solution in filling the critical gaps in the STEM 

workforce; at the same time, this incredible demand reinforces the need to replicate 

our model if we are intent on having the quality and quantity of students in the 

STEM pipeline. 

In preparing for my testimony I read the Labor and Workforce recommendations 

of the ‘‘Future of Aviation Advisory Committee’’ and wholeheartedly agree with 

them. I understand there has been an MOU signed between the Departments of 

Education and Transportation which may mean more assistance for schools like 

ours. I have been to Washington, D.C. on occasion to discuss Aviation High; and we 

have also hosted a visit to our school for Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. In 

being completely transparent, there seems to be a good deal of interest in our school 

from DOE officials, and we have been told at the highest levels that the Department 

wants to create ‘‘more schools like AHS,’’ but there has not been much follow-up. 

Thanks to Congressmen Smith and McDermott, who represent parts of our district, we will use about $600,000 in Federal money for lab equipment in our new 

$43.5 million school. We hoped for more support from the Federal Government for 

construction and are pleased to see construction-related recommendations in the report. 

At this point, Aviation High School could use assistance creating relevant and innovative programs with Federal aviation and aerospace agency help. The biggest 

39 

challenge faced by this committee and industries that rely on STEM innovators, is 

turning the rhetoric from Federal agencies into action. I do want to applaud the 

work of the men and women of the FAA locally. They are dedicated professionals 

who want to share their passion and knowledge with our students. We appreciate 

their serving as mentors and subject matter experts. 

Aviation High School is completely committed to helping fill the stem pipeline. We 

are working with other STEM schools in the state to do just that. We are very willing to work closely with you to fill that pipeline as well, and here are three recommendations that will help us all: 

First, we ask that you help us formalize a relationship with the FAA by having 

the agency provide a full-time staff person at the school, offer paid internships to 

students and help expose and familiarize our students with cutting edge technologies in which it is currently engaged—Next Gen, UAVs, commercial space, systems safety, etc. 

Secondly, the Committee should consider working with industry, Federal agencies 

and Aviation High to help replicate schools like ours in other parts of Washington 

State and the country; 

And third, we recommend, even in this austere time, that you find ways to provide funding. We recognize that due to budget deficits, it is oftentimes necessary to 

cut programs; however, money should be spent on creating and expanding the 

STEM pipeline to keep this Nation’s aviation and aerospace industry competitive in 

the midst of growing threats from elsewhere in the world. 

I want to leave you with a few examples of the sort of innovation we want our 

students to emulate—innovation that has made this Nation the premier aviation 

and aerospace leader in the world. The first three innovations were created by 

Washingtonians and have been adopted worldwide. 

Mr. Joe Clark, owner of Aviation Partners located just across the field from the 

Museum, along with his colleague Bernie Gratzer invented blended winglet technology, which saves hundreds of millions of dollars in fuel costs, protects the environment, modernizes aircraft, and makes them perform better. The winglet is now 

the standard on all commercial jets . . . and as their website states, ‘‘The future 

is on the wing.’’ 

Steve Fulton was recently selected as a Pathfinder in Aviation by The Museum 

of Flight. As a former Alaska Airlines technical pilot, Captain Fulton knew firsthand how important it was to improve aircraft departure and arrival operations in 

Alaska. He led the development of what is now known as Required Navigation Performance (RNP) and now provides RNP solutions for airlines and air navigation providers around the world. 

When completed, our new school will be named Raisbeck Aviation High School 

after James Raisbeck, a world-renowned aerodynamicist and entrepreneur who 

owns and operates Raisbeck Engineering, located just a couple of miles from here— 

a firm that is dedicated to conceiving, engineering, designing, flight-testing, certifying and manufacturing performance improvement systems for the world’s business 

and commercial jet-powered aircraft. James has an uncanny ability to see a need 

and innovate a solution. For example, after what we now refer to as 9/11, Raisbeck 

created secured cockpit doors that are now standard equipment on new and existing 

commercial aircraft worldwide. This innovation by our local icon has raised safety 

and security for flight crews to a new level. 

I cannot talk about local innovation without mentioning Bonnie Dunbar, former 

Astronaut and CEO of the Museum of Flight, Doug King, current CEO/President of 

the Museum, and all of the trustees and stakeholders of the Museum who believed 

that a premier high school and a premier education museum ought to partner for 

the benefit of students and their future contributions to the economy and to humanity. They are the ultimate innovators in creating a positive future for our youth and 

the air and space industry. 

The innovations that I have cited are of the same nature as students at Aviation 

High School want to create in the future. Our first crop of students graduating from 

college will enter the workforce next year. Already, some are being recruited by 

major commercial jet engine manufacturers and other critical players in this Nation’s air and space industry. 

With your help, Aviation High can increase the number of innovators it is producing, both through offering better opportunities at our school and helping to replicate the Aviation High model in other places. 

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to testify today. Our school stands ready 

to assist you in filling the STEM pipeline with the intellectual and technical capital 

that ensures the prominence of aerospace innovation in the Washington State and 

national economies. 

40 

Senator CANTWELL. Thank you, Ms. Gilman. Thank you for those 

specific recommendations. 

Next, Ms. Schaeffer, welcome. Thank you for being here. 

STATEMENT OF CYNDI SCHAEFFER, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, 

BUSINESS TRAINING CENTER, EDMONDS COMMUNITY 

COLLEGE 

Ms. SCHAEFFER. Good morning, Senator Cantwell. Can you hear? 

Senator CANTWELL. You might pull it up a little closer. 

Ms. SCHAEFFER. Great. I am Cyndi Schaeffer, Executive Director 

of the Business Training Center with Edmonds Community College. I will be talking about the Washington Aerospace Training 

and Research Center, referred to as WATR, a little bit of its history, as well as the programs and challenges that we face. 

The WATR Center is operated through Edmonds Community 

College with an operating agreement through the Aerospace Futures Alliance, AFA. Before I describe the WATR Center, I want to 

take the opportunity to explain what happened before the center 

opened. 

Approximately 6 years ago, Senator, as you know, you were instrumental in the creation and development of the Center of Excellence, the Advanced Materials and Transport Aircraft Structures, 

AMTAS, where Edmonds Community College, University of Washington, the FAA, and others were members. Your office continued 

to support the college in accessing grants, to support composite 

training tools, equipment, as well as Senator Murray, Congressman 

Inslee, and the AFA. 

Briefly, there is two centers, as you know, in the State. The 

WATR Center serves the west side, and I know that Dr. Dunlap 

will be talking about his center in a moment. The intent and the 

mission of these centers is to provide Statewide training through 

collaborating with local community colleges and delivering training 

out of the centers themselves. 

The training delivered out of the centers has to be industry driven with a rapid response. If industry identifies a new need, we are 

expected to develop that training and deliver it immediately. 

WATR has recently developed a partnership and agreement with 

Renton Technical College to deliver the WATR trainings in King 

County as well. 

Just a little bit of a description, WATR opened in June 2010, and 

it is because of our successful partnerships with the Boeing Company and suppliers, the Center of Excellence, Snohomish, WDC, 

AFA, and of course, our legislative support and your support. The 

industry-driven center is operated, again, through the AFA and 

consults with an AFA industry advisory board. 

Some of the challenges that we see, there are a lot of industry 

representatives telling us there is a lot of people out of work, yet 

not enough job candidates with entry-level skills needed to pursue 

even entry-level manufacturing jobs. And while engineering and 

other long-term skills are needed, a large number of the demand 

jobs can be taught in relatively a short timeframe. People can continue their education once they are employed. 

The second challenge we are hearing is the average age of aerospace workers, approximately 48 years old, and this aging workVerDate Nov 24 2008 14:24 Mar 30, 2012 Jkt 073541 PO 00000 Frm 00044 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6601 S:\GPO\DOCS\73541.TXT SCOM1 PsN: JACKIE
41 

force will result in skilled aerospace workers leaving the industry 

without skilled workers to replace them. And although the aerospace manufacturing industry has many career opportunities and 

ladders, today’s youth appear to be unaware or disinterested in 

pursuing aerospace careers, and there needs to be more recruitment in middle school, high school, and young adults to the industry. 

Also, a challenge to the aerospace industry we are hearing is that 

the training content and delivery needs to be quick, fast, relevant, 

and industry driven. Training must be delivered using state-of-theart methods to increase capacity that also increases students’ capacity and learning. 

Training must be executed intensely, quickly, with a high level 

of retention. Our training content cannot be static, but it has to be 

continually reviewed, modified to ensure it is cutting edge. 

So how is WATR addressing the challenge? WATR Center has 

developed over 20 aerospace courses and a number of certificates 

requested by industry, including core aerospace, assembly aerospace, certificate FAA requirements, quality control, lean for aerospace, nondestructive testing for composite, among others. 

We not only teach the technical skills at the WATR Center, but 

we teach the soft skills or the global professional standards, such 

as interpersonal skills, teaming, conflict resolution. Those soft 

skills are so important that many aerospace companies are telling 

us they are not seeing in their new recruits and their new employees. 

WATR has delivered these courses and certificates to meet industry demands containing cutting-edge content, promoting fast and 

intense learning, serving a large number of students. Since the 

opening on June 2010, WATR has been offering core and assembly 

certificates on first and second shift. These certificates prepare students for jobs such as aerospace assemblers and aerospace manufacturers. 

These courses were developed to be delivered through online and 

very innovative technology that has been welcomed by younger and 

older students alike. Through an intense online course of study, 

students are able to move through the material. When they have 

demonstrated their knowledge and can repeat the content that is 

challenging, following demonstrated knowledge competency, the 

students participate in a month-long, intensive hands-on student 

learning experience 8 hours a day to help them apply their skills. 

Students successfully navigate through the 12 weeks of program, 

earning them 29 college credits. Using this innovative online hybrid model, the center has the capacity to graduate 180 students 

per month. With the center’s upcoming renovation, expansion to 

third shift and weekend courses, the center will have the capacity 

to graduate over 350 students per month, earning two certificates. 

To expand capacity and better meet industry needs, the WATR 

Center is partnering with the Renton Technical College and other 

colleges to train more students State wide. And in addition, the 

center is also offering aerospace electronic assembly mechanic certificate, and of course, other offerings include composite certificate, 

Six Sigma, quality control, quality inspection. 

42 

As one of our graduates, Michael Greenwood, had mentioned earlier, we have over 400 graduates, 442, with a placement of 85 to 

90 percent within about 3 months. The 3 months is due to the time 

that aerospace needs to screen people properly to make sure they 

are not using drugs and have a clear record. 

Boeing has hired the majority of those graduates, but many supplier aerospace companies, such as TECT Aerospace, Flight Structures, Norfolk Shipyard, Bridgeways Manufacturing, Terry’s Machine, Giddens, Crane Aerospace, Primus International, have also 

taken our graduates and hired them. 

The demographics of our students—16 percent of the students 

were female, 33 percent are nonwhite, and 24 percent were under 

the age of 25. Although the demographics are encouraging with respect to women and nonwhite populations, the numbers do raise 

concern regarding the low enrollment of younger students and that 

aging workforce issue. So we have implemented several strategies 

to increase the number of young students coming through the center. 

The first one is a project that we are launching in collaboration 

with the Boys and Girls Club, Senator, your office, the AFA. It is 

called the Cool Girls for Aerospace Project. It is being implemented 

in November. The club will require 13- to 15-year-old girls to make 

composite trinket trays, design personalized key chains using CAD 

and CATIA with prototype machines, and make paperweights 

using welding equipment. 

Throughout the training, the girls will view aerospace and manufacturing videos, introducing aerospace concepts. We plan to expand that program for boys, too. 

In addition, we have a huge marketing campaign. We are doing 

an aggressive advertising blitz in the Alderwood Mall. We are 

going to be using Generation Y themes and motivational concepts, 

based on academic studies and research. All the research suggests 

that the way we recruit young people, we would think, us baby 

boomers, to recruit people in the industry probably won’t work. 

During September and late October, WATR will be mailing out 

44,000 postcards to residents, advertising WATR certificate geared 

to younger adults using those generation marketing strategies. We 

are also developing marketing videos and working with skills centers to offer scholarship programs for our certificates. Thus far, 

WATR has met with Sno-Isle Skills Center, Yakima Skills Center 

to develop agreements. 

So how are we reaching out to industry? AFA is leading an advisory board on our behalf. That is industry represented. WATR staff 

meets with the Boeing Company weekly, as well as suppliers. Our 

curriculum and training is developed by subject matter experts. 

Some of our challenges are the cost of running the program, the 

actual lab program. The Boeing Company was so generous to donate over $2.5 million of equipment and tools, but the materials 

needed to instruct those courses, in particular composites, is very 

expensive. 

[The prepared statement of Ms. Schaeffer follows:] 

43 

PREPARED STATEMENT OF CYNDI SCHAEFFER, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, 

BUSINESS TRAINING CENTER, EDMONDS COMMUNITY COLLEGE

Introduction 

I’m Cyndi Schaeffer, Executive Director of the Business Training Center with Edmonds Community College. The Washington Aerospace Training and Research Center (WATR) is an aerospace training facility located at Paine Field, providing statewide training, by Edmonds Community College—Business and Training Department 

through an operating agreement with the Aerospace Futures Alliance (AFA). 

History 

Before I describe the WATR Center, I want to take this opportunity to explain 

what happened before the Center opened. Approximately 6 years ago, Senator Cantwell was instrumental in the creation and development of the Center of Excellence—Advanced Materials in Transport Aircraft Structures (AMTAS), where Edmonds Community College, University of Washington, the FAA, and others were 

members. Your (Senator Cantwell’s) office continued to support the college in accessing grants and other funding to support composites training, tools, and equipment. 

Senator Murray and Congressman Inslee’s offices, as well as the AFA, assisted the 

college in accessing grants and allocations to begin WATR. 

Statewide Aerospace Centers 

Statewide Aerospace Centers are located on the East and West side of Washington to provide statewide training for aerospace companies. Spokane Community 

College serves the East side, and the Washington Aerospace Training and Research 

Center (operated through the AFA and Edmonds Community College) serves the 

West side. 

The intent and mission of these centers is to provide statewide aerospace training 

through collaborating with local community colleges and delivering training out of 

its centers. The training delivered out of the centers must be industry driven and 

have a rapid response. If industry identifies a new need, the centers are expected 

to develop that training. WATR has recently developed a partnership and agreement 

with Renton Technical College to deliver WATR trainings in King County. 

WATR Center Description 

WATR opened in June 2010 through a variety of successful partnerships with the 

aerospace industry, Snohomish County, Center of Excellence, WDC, AFA, local legislators, and state and Federal Government. This industry driven center is operated 

in partnership with the AFA and consults with an AFA industry advisory board. 

Workforce Challenges 

Increased number of trained entry level job applicants 

There are many industry representatives telling us that there are a lot of people 

out of work, yet there are not enough job candidates with the entry level skills 

needed to pursue even entry level aerospace manufacturing jobs. While engineering and other long term skills are needed, a large number of in demand 

jobs can be taught in relatively short time frames. People can continue their 

education once they are employed, gaining experience, and ultimately filling 

higher skilled job positions. 

Aging workforce 

The average age of aerospace employees is approximately 48. The ‘‘aging’’ workforce will result in skilled aerospace workers leaving the industry without 

skilled workers to replace them. Although the aerospace manufacturing industry has many career opportunities and ladders, today’s youth appear to be unaware of and/or disinterested in pursuing aerospace careers. There needs to be 

increased recruitment of middle school, high school, and young adults to the industry. 

Delivery of training 

Training content and delivery needs to be consistent with industry workforce 

demand, and the content must be industry driven and continually changing. 

Training must be delivered using state-of-the-art methods that increase student 

capacity and learning. Training must be executed quickly with a high level of 

retention. Training content cannot be static, but must be continually reviewed 

and modified, if necessary, to ensure it is cutting edge. 

44 

WATR Addresses the Challenges 

Training developed conducive to industry needs 

WATR developed over 20 aerospace courses and a number of certificates requested 

by industry, including: Core Aerospace Certificate FAA Requirements; Quality Control; Lean for Aerospace, and Non-destructive Testing for Composites, among others. 

WATR has delivered these courses and certificates to meet industry demands: 

containing cutting edge and relevant content; promoting fast and intense learning; 

serving a larger number of students. Since opening in June 2010, WATR has been 

offering Core and Assembly aerospace certificates, on first and second shift. These 

certificates prepare students for jobs such as aerospace assemblers and aerospace 

manufacturers. 

The courses were developed to be delivered online through very innovative technology that has been welcomed by younger and older students alike. Through an 

intense online course of study, students are able to move through material when 

they have demonstrated their knowledge and they can repeat content that is challenging. Following demonstrated knowledge competency, the students participate in 

a month long hands on student learning experience to allow them to apply their 

skills. Students successfully navigate through the program in 12 weeks. Using this 

model, the Center has the capacity to graduate 180 students per month. With the 

Center’s upcoming renovation and the expansion to third shift and weekend courses, 

the Center will have the capacity to graduate over 350 students per month, each 

earning two certificates and 19 credits. To expand capacity and better meet industry 

needs, the WATR Center is partnering with Renton Technical College and other colleges to train more students statewide. In addition, the Center is offering the Aerospace Electrical Assembly Mechanic Certificate. Other trainings WATR has offered 

include the Applied Technology Manufacturing Certificate, the Composite Certificate; CATIA, Lean and Six Sigma, Quality Control, ESL in Aerospace Manufacturing, and ISO 9000. 

Graduates 

As of August 31, 2011, 357 students have graduated with Core and Assembly Mechanic certificates. 347 of them have applied for jobs, 291 of them have been interviewed, and 240 of them have received job offers (206 of whom are now working 

with the remaining in the process of undergoing background checks and drug analysis). Boeing has hired 190 of the 206 employed graduates; other employers include 

TECT Aerospace, Flight Structures, Norfolk Naval Shipyard, Bridgeways Manufacturing, AMT, Terry’s Machine Giddens Industries, Crane Aerospace, and Primus 

International. It takes approximately two to 3 months, once a person graduates to 

obtain employment in the aerospace field. 

Demographics of WATR students 

Sixteen percent of the students were female; 33 percent non-white; and 24 percent 

were under the age of 25. Although, the demographics are encouraging with respect 

to the number of women and non-white populations, the numbers raise concern regarding the low enrollment of younger students, and the ‘‘aging’’ aerospace workforce. WATR has implemented several strategies to increase younger students: 

Cool Girls for Aerospace Project: In collaboration with the Boys and Girls Club, 

Senator Cantwell’s staff, and the AFA, a ‘‘Girls for Aerospace Project’’ is being implemented in November 2011. The ‘‘club’’ will require the 13 to 15 year old girls to 

make a composite trinket tray, design and produce a personalized keychain using 

CAD and prototype machines, and make a paperweight using welding equipment. 

Throughout the training, the girls will view aerospace and manufacturing videos 

and be introduced to aerospace concepts. 

Marketing Campaign: In October 2011, WATR will launch an aggressive advertising blitz in the Alderwood Mall. The campaign may include hanging banners, 

table top inserts, a T-stand, and a barricade wall. The advertisements will be in the 

mall for 8–10 weeks targeting younger adults by using Generation Y themes and 

motivational concepts based on academic studies. During September and late October, WATR will be mailing out 44,000 postcards to residents throughout Snohomish 

and King County, advertising the WATR Certificate geared to younger adults using 

Generation Y marketing strategies. 

Marketing Videos: WATR has contracted with a video producer to develop several 

unique marketing videos—one designated to recruit high school students and young 

people and the other designed to recruit veterans. 

Scholarships for High Schools and Skill Centers: WATR is working with skill centers and high schools statewide to recruit transitioning students into the aerospace 

45 

industry for employment. Thus far, WATR has met with Sno-Isle Skills Center and 

the Yakima Skills Center to develop agreements. WATR staff will meet with the 

City of Kent to replicate these agreements with the Renton Skills Center to offer 

aerospace certificate scholarships to high school students. 

How the WATR Center is Reaching Out to Industry 

AFA industry led advisory board: The Aerospace Futures Alliance leads an industry advisory board that provides direction. AFA initiates quick turnaround surveys 

to evaluate the training needs and existing skill gaps of 650 aerospace suppliers. 

WATR meets with the advisory board regularly. 

WATR staff meets with the Boeing Company and other aerospace companies 

WATR staff meet with Boeing on a weekly basis to discuss training needs. (These 

meetings have been ongoing for 2 years.) Additionally, WATR staff provides regular 

tours, meets with industry, and industry comes to the WATR site to recruit and interview students and graduates. During all these interactions, companies are asked 

about their training needs and skill gaps. 

Curriculum and training is developed quickly using industry subject matter experts and delivered in a rapid and sustainable manner. Training is developed and 

delivered to increase capacity to meet industry demand needs—that it is industry 

driven and can be modified quickly to match the ever changing needs of the aerospace industry. 

Challenges to the WATR Center 

Cost of program: The materials and supplies for students to participate in the lab 

portion of the certificates is extremely high because of the intense practice students 

are required to complete to gain the necessary competencies and skills. Because of 

the high costs and tuition, more funding is needed for the student loan program and 

student vouchers. 

This short-term training model has proven to be effective for both students and 

employers. It is an excellent example of education, industry, and government 

partnering to develop a skilled workforce and an established career pathway. Continuing to fund this important training will help keep the aerospace industry alive 

and well in Washington State. 

Senator CANTWELL. So thank you. Thank you very much, Ms. 

Schaeffer. 

Ms. SCHAEFFER. Thank you. 

Senator CANTWELL. Thank you for your testimony. And certainly, 

we will have questions. 

Mr. Dunlap, thank you for being here. Thank you for your leadership on this Department of Labor grant and coordinating that 

with the many institutions that are going to be receiving funds. 

STATEMENT OF JOE DUNLAP, ED.D., PRESIDENT, 

SPOKANE COMMUNITY COLLEGE 

Dr. DUNLAP. Thank you for the invite, Senator Cantwell. 

I am President of Spokane Community College, one of 34 community and technical colleges within the state of Washington. And 

those community colleges support the 600 aerospace manufacturers 

and suppliers. The community and technical college system is absolutely critical to that industry cluster for workforce development. 

Last year, 161,000 full-time equivalent students were enrolled in 

the community and technical college system, which is 20,000 more 

than they were funded for. And that equates to 330,000 

unduplicated head count students. Enrollment in science, technology, engineering, and math courses and programs over the past 

4 years has increased by over 12 percent. 

And in October 2009, Governor Gregoire allocated $1.5 million of 

her discretionary workforce investment funding to support the 

aerospace industry. In her directive, Governor Gregoire instructed 

the State Board for Community and Technical Colleges to disVerDate Nov 24 2008 14:24 Mar 30, 2012 Jkt 073541 PO 00000 Frm 00049 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6601 S:\GPO\DOCS\73541.TXT SCOM1 PsN: JACKIE
46 

tribute the funding for industry-driven training centers, new equipment, K–12 programs, curriculum alignment, and facilitation of 

transfer of research findings into training curricula. 

Recognizing that workforce development for the aerospace industry is critical to Washington’s economic future, the State Board for 

Community and Technical Colleges, with assistance from the legislature, began to organize around that appeal. Funding was appropriated to establish the Aerospace Joint Apprenticeship Committee, 

two aerospace technology centers at the WATR Center and the Inland Northwest Aerospace Technology Center in Spokane. A 10th 

Center of Excellence, the Aerospace and Advanced Materials Manufacturing at Everett Community College was also established. 

With grant writing support from Everett Community College, 

Spokane Community College took the lead in organizing a consortium affectionately known as ‘‘Air Washington,’’ which consists of 

11 community and technical colleges, the aerospace technology center in Spokane, the Center of Excellence for Aerospace and Advanced Manufacturing, the Aerospace and Joint Apprenticeship 

Committee, and regional workforce development councils, as well 

as employer partners, such as Absolute Aviation and the Boeing 

Company, to submit a grant proposal to support that industry cluster. 

The proposal was recently funded by the Department of Labor for $20 million for a 3-year period of time. And thank you, Senator 

Cantwell, for your support in that endeavor. 

The purpose of this grant is to research, develop, design, and implement state-of-the-art education, training, and support services 

necessary to meet Washington State’s growing workforce demands 

identified by employer partners in the aerospace industry sectors, 

as well as to develop sustainable infrastructure to increase capacity 

for training aerospace workers in Washington State. 

Selected occupations that this grant will focus on include aircraft 

structure, surfaces, and rigging assemblers; machinists and computer numeric controlled machine tool operators; helpers for installation, maintenance, and repair workers; aircraft mechanics and 

service technicians; and electrical and electronic assemblers. More 

specifically, the Inland Northwest Aerospace Technology Center at 

Spokane Community College supports the aerospace industry in 

eastern Washington, which is expected to grow by 40 percent over 

the next several years. 

Spokane Community College offers the following aerospace-related programs: aviation maintenance technology degree, which includes the FAA airframe and power plant certificates embedded 

into the curriculum, and there are five such programs in the State; 

electronics; hydraulics and pneumatics; machining and welding; 

and customized business and industry training. 

The following curriculum was recently completed this summer: 

AS 9100, Quality Assurance I and II, Coordinate Measuring Machine, CATIA Levels I and II, TIG Welding, Avionics and Job Performance Skills, and we conducted an aerospace summer camp for 

high school students as well. And a two-quarter, short-term composite manufacturing certificate is under development. 

The Center of Excellence, located at Everett Community College, 

for Aerospace and Advanced Materials Manufacturing, serves as 

47 

the State-wide liaison to business, industry, labor, and the State’s 

educational systems for the purposes of creating a highly skilled 

and readily available workforce critical to the future of this economy. 

Significantly, the Center of Excellence produced a cross-mapping 

of 22 community college and technical programs with the Boeing 32 

job codes. And that will help create alignment with the curriculum 

based on industry needs. I have attached to my comments their 

most recent inventory of programs that are aerospace related at 

the community and technical college systems within the system, 

and this is available on the table outside. 

Again, I would like to thank you for the invite, and we appreciate 

your leadership in helping create aerospace jobs. 

[The prepared statement of Dr. Dunlap follows:] 

PREPARED STATEMENT OF JOE DUNLAP, ED.D., PRESIDENT, SPOKANE COMMUNITY COLLEGE

For many decades, Washington State has been a center of the aerospace industry, 

focusing around The Boeing Company and over 600 aerospace and manufacturing 

industry supply companies statewide. The health of this critical industry is reflected 

in the economic health of Washington State and the ability of highly-skilled Washington workers to obtain high wage technical careers. Community and Technical 

College enrollment for 2010–2011 was 161,081 FTEs which is 20,000 FTEs over the 

funded target level; while headcount was 330,608 students served. Students enrolled 

in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) courses/programs have significantly increased over the past 5 years [see table below]. 

Year 

STEM Enrollments Increase from 

previous year 

2006–07 4,049 N/A 

2007–08 4,190 3.5% 

2008–09 4,573 9.1% 

2009–10 5,079 11.0% 

2010–11 5,697 12.2% 

On October 19, 2009, Governor Gregoire allocated $1.5 million of her discretionary 

Workforce Investment Act (WIA) funding in support of the aerospace industry. In 

her directive, the Governor instructed the State Board for Community and Technical 

Colleges (SBCTC) to distribute the funding for: (1) industry-driven training centers, 

(2) new equipment, (3) K–12 programs, (4) curriculum alignment, and (5) facilitation 

of the transfer of research findings into training curricula. 

Recognizing that workforce development for the aerospace industry is critical to 

Washington’s economic future, the State Board for Community and Technical Colleges, with assistance from the legislature, began to organize around the Governor’s 

appeal. Funding was appropriated to establish: (1) the Aerospace Joint Apprenticeship Committee, (2) two aerospace technology centers; the Washington Aerospace 

Training and Research Center at Edmonds Community College, and the Inland 

Northwest Aerospace Technology Center at Spokane Community College, and (3) a 

tenth Center of Excellence [COE] for Aerospace and Advanced Materials Manufacturing at Everett Community College. An inventory of programs and courses taught 

at the 34 community and technical colleges was developed. In addition, industry 

helped to identify knowledge, skills and abilities needed by the 600 aerospace related manufacturers and suppliers. 

With grant writing support from Everett CC, Spokane Community College took 

the lead in organizing a consortium known as ‘‘Air Washington,’’ which consists of 

12 community and technical colleges, the aerospace technology centers in Edmonds 

and Spokane, the COE for Aerospace and Advanced Manufacturing, the Aerospace 

Joint Apprenticeship Committee, and 14 regional Workforce Development Councils, 

to develop a comprehensive proposal supporting Washington State’s aerospace industry. That proposal was recently funded by DOL for $20M over 3 years. The purpose of this grant is to research, develop, design and implement state-of-the-art education, training, and support service necessary to meet Washington State’s growing 

workforce demands, identified by employer partners in the aerospace industry sectors; as well as to develop a sustainable infrastructure to increase capacity for trainVerDate Nov 24 2008 14:24 Mar 30, 2012 Jkt 073541 PO 00000 Frm 00051 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6621 S:\GPO\DOCS\73541.TXT SCOM1 PsN: JACKIE
48 

*This report can be found at http://www.a2m2.net/resource-guide. 

ing aerospace workers in Washington State. Selected occupations that this grant 

will focus on include: (1) aircraft structure, surfaces, and rigging assemblers, (2) machinists and computer numeric controlled machine tool operators, (3) helpers for installation, maintenance, and repair workers, (4) aircraft mechanics and service technicians, and (5) electrical and electronic assemblers. 

More specifically, the Inland Northwest Aerospace Technology Center [INATC], at 

Spokane Community College supports the aerospace industry in Eastern Washington, which is expected to grow by 40 percent over the next several years. Spokane Community College offers the following aerospace related programs: (1) Aviation Maintenance Technician degree that includes FAA Airframe and Powerplant 

certificates embedded into the curriculum [there are five such programs in the state], 

(2) electronics, (3) hydraulics and pneumatics, (4) machining, (5) welding, and (6) 

customized business and industry training. Future plans call for the establishment 

of flight training, air traffic control, and dispatcher programs. 

The following curriculum was recently completed this summer: (1) AS 9100, (2) 

Quality Assurance I & II, (3) Coordinate Measuring Machine, (4) CATIA Level I & 

II, (5) TIG welding, (5) Avionics and Job Performance Skills, and (6) an Aerospace 

Summer Camp for high school students was conducted. A two-quarter, short-term 

composite manufacturing certificate is under development. 

Once 5.4 acres of land has been transferred from the Washington Military Department, INATC will relocate from Felts Field in Spokane to the Spokane International 

Airport to be more centrally located and better able to serve the emerging aerospace 

workforce in Eastern Washington. 

The Center of Excellence [COE] for Aerospace and Advanced Materials Manufacturing, located at Everett Community College, serves as the statewide liaison to 

business, industry, labor and the state’s educational systems for the purpose of creating a highly skilled and readily available workforce critical to the success of industries driving the state’s economy and supporting Washington families. Significantly, 

the COE produced a cross mapping of all 22 Community and Technical College aviation, aerospace, and advanced manufacturing programs to the 32 Boeing Job Codes. 

This alignment is shared with the state high schools to facilitate their curriculum 

alignment with college curricula. 

Attached is an inventory of community and technical college aerospace programs 

throughout the State, prepared by the COE, as well as an aerospace manufacturing 

career tree. 

ATTACHMENTS: 2 

Washington State’s Aerospace and Advanced Manufacturing Education and Training Organizations*

Aerospace Manufacturing Career Tree 

49 

Senator CANTWELL. Thank you, Mr. Dunlap. 

Next, we will hear from Ms. Laura Hopkins, who is with the 

Aerospace Joint Apprenticeship Committee. Thank you. 

STATEMENT OF LAURA HOPKINS, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, 

AEROSPACE JOINT APPRENTICESHIP COMMITTEE 

Ms. HOPKINS. Thank you for the opportunity to speak with you 

today. 

My name is Laura Hopkins, and I am the Executive Director of 

the Aerospace Joint Apprenticeship Committee, commonly known 

as AJAC. Our organization was created in 2008 with funding from 

the State of Washington to address the aerospace and manufacturing sectors workforce shortage issues. 

In these industries, employers have been looking at the reality 

of over 50 percent of their workforce being eligible to retire and a 

lack of younger generations getting trained in the skilled trades. 

Examples of the occupations we are talking about are machinists, 

FAA-certified aircraft mechanics, composites technicians, and aircraft interiors technicians. 

We currently have programs in King, Pierce, Snohomish, Spokane, and Franklin Counties and work with over 90 employers 

across Washington State. 

One of the significant challenges brought on by these retirements 

of these trades people, that they are craftsmen and women who 

have honed their skills in these trades with years of experience. 

They are the employees who bring the utmost benefit to their employers by performing with the greatest amount of accuracy, efficiency, with the least amount of waste and defective parts. They 


1024DUN1.eps
50 

know more than how to push a button. They know why and when 

they are pushing a button. 

It is imperative that employers have an avenue to capture the 

knowledge of these retiring trades people and pass that knowledge 

on to the next generation. We are short on time to do this. As more 

and more people are retiring, the expertise of these trades are leaving a void that will be nearly impossible to recapture, and it involves the loss of the art of the trade itself. 

It is with this sense of urgency that AJAC was created and has 

been working to address the needs of the aerospace and manufacturing sector in Washington State. Although AJAC was created for 

the aerospace industry, we have been serving other manufacturing 

sectors as well. Because aerospace requires the highest level of precision machining, we can train people in other sectors, such as 

medical devices, marine technology, and such, to the aerospace 

standards; whereas, we can’t do that the other way around. 

So, how does our apprenticeship model work? Most of our apprenticeships are multi-employer programs. Ninety-three percent of 

the apprenticeship program happens on the job. The apprentice 

goes to work 40 hours a week and is connected with one or more 

mentor on the worksite who transfers their knowledge to them. 

In this manner, they learn the most relevant knowledge, and 

they are trained on state-of-the-art equipment. Then one night a 

week, those apprentices come together at school to learn the theory 

behind everything they are learning on the job. 

The beauty of a 21st century apprenticeship model like AJAC is 

that it provides the connection between experienced worker and the 

new person, as well as providing such support services as veterans 

support services, interim certificates, and perhaps most importantly, college credit that is transferable onto 2- and 4-year degree 

programs. 

In the apprenticeship manufacturing sectors, there is a skill gap. 

Employers need skilled workers, and unemployed people need jobs. 

In order to address this skill gap, we have partnered with local 

workforce agencies to create something called the ‘‘manufacturing 

academy.’’ This preemployment training program is an intensive, 

full-time, 8-week program where students are introduced to the 

manufacturing sector and learn the basics of safety, hand tools, 

and mechanical skills. 

Fundamental to the whole program is that the students are introduced to a new career pathway, and they get to learn and practice the skills that will help them get jobs in the manufacturing 

sector. Employers are behind the idea from the beginning, and they 

are ready to hire the graduates into entry-level jobs, and then they 

put them into an apprenticeship program to further their education 

and training. 

Apprenticeships are not just about giving some training. Apprenticeships are the vital connection between education, workforce development, and economic development. The cost for State and Federal agencies to run apprenticeship programs is much less than 

traditional education programs because the employers assist in covering the cost of the education. 

When people become apprentices, they are full-time employees 

who earn a wage, which increases over time to a family wage job 

51 

as they become more productive. They receive medical and other 

benefits, no longer needing to rely on the State or Federal agencies 

for assistance while they are getting their education. This then 

gives them the ability to stimulate the economy by putting their income back into their communities. 

People who build and maintain aircraft generally are not purchasing their own product. They may not be able to afford an airplane. However, they may be able to afford an airplane ticket or 

eat at a restaurant at a local airport or buy a trinket at a tourist 

destination, again stimulating the economy. 

Apprenticeships—so, finally, apprenticeships are not just about 

giving someone an education. They are the vital connection between education, workforce development, and economic development. They are about empowering people to be autonomous and 

giving them education and career pathways in good, solid, family 

wage jobs. 

The U.S. lags far behind other nations in apprenticeship funding 

and utilization. If we hope to maintain our edge over other nations, 

we must capture and not lose the art of these trades themselves. 

Thank you very much. 

[The prepared statement of Ms. Hopkins follows:] 

PREPARED STATEMENT OF LAURA HOPKINS, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, 

AEROSPACE JOINT APPRENTICESHIP COMMITTEE

Thank you for the opportunity to speak with you today. My name is Laura Hopkins and I am the Executive Director of the Aerospace Joint Apprenticeship Committee, commonly known as AJAC. 

Our organization was created in 2008 with funding from the State of Washington 

to address the aerospace and manufacturing sector workforce shortage issue. In the 

aerospace and manufacturing sector, employers have been looking at the reality of 

over 50 percent of their workforce being eligible to retire and a lack of younger generations getting trained in the skilled trades. Examples of the occupations we are 

talking about are Machinists, Aircraft Mechanics, Aircraft Interiors Technicians, 

and Composite Technicians. 

One of the significant challenges brought on with retirements in the aerospace 

and manufacturing sectors is that these retiring tradespeople are crafts men and 

women who have honed their skills in the trade through years of experience. They 

are the employees who bring the greatest benefit to the employers by performing 

with the greatest amount of accuracy, efficiency and with the least amount of material waste and defective parts. They know more than how to push buttons; they understand why and when they would push certain buttons. They are capable of listening to the machines; know how to troubleshoot and adjust the equipment as 

needed. The deficiency brought on by these retirements is much more than just 

technical knowledge that can be easily taught. It involves the loss of the art of the 

trade itself. 

It is imperative that employers have an avenue to capture the knowledge of the 

retiring trades-people and pass that knowledge on to the next generation. We are 

short on time to do this as more and more people with the expertise of the trades 

are leaving a void that will be nearly impossible to recapture. It is with this sense 

of urgency that AJAC was created and has been working to address the needs of 

the aerospace and manufacturing sectors in Washington State. 

Although AJAC was created for the aerospace industry we have been serving 

other manufacturing sectors as well. Because aerospace requires the highest level 

of precision machining, we can train people in other sectors such as medical devices 

and marine technology to the aerospace standards whereas we cannot do that the 

other way around. 

So, how does our apprenticeship model work? Most of our apprenticeships are 

multi-employer programs. 93 percent of an apprenticeship program happens on the 

job. The apprentice goes to their respective job site for 40 hours a week and is connected with one or more mentors who transfer their knowledge to them. In this 

manner they learn the most relevant knowledge and are trained with state-of-theVerDate Nov 24 2008 14:24 Mar 30, 2012 Jkt 073541 PO 00000 Frm 00055 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6621 S:\GPO\DOCS\73541.TXT SCOM1 PsN: JACKIE
52 

art equipment. Then one night a week the apprentices come together at school to 

learn the theory behind everything they are learning on the job. The beauty of a 

21st century model apprenticeship program like AJAC is that it provides the connection between the experienced worker and the new person, as well as providing 

things such as veterans support services, interim certificates and college credit 

transferable to 4-year university programs. 

In the aerospace and manufacturing sectors there is a skills gap. Employers need 

skilled workers and unemployed people need jobs. In order to address the skills gap 

we have partnered with local workforce agencies to create something called the 

Manufacturing Academy. This pre-employment training academy is an intensive, 

full time, 8 week program where students are introduced to the manufacturing sector and learn the basics of safety, hand tools and mechanical skills. Fundamental 

to the whole program is that the students are introduced to a new career path and 

they get to learn and practice the skills that will help them get jobs in manufacturing. Employers are behind the idea from the beginning and are ready to hire 

graduates of the program into entry level jobs, who then progress into an apprenticeship to further their education and training. 

Apprenticeships are not just about giving someone some training. Apprenticeships 

are a vital connection between education, workforce development and economic development. The cost for State and Federal agencies to run apprenticeships is much 

less than traditional educational programs because employers assist in covering the 

cost of the education. When people become apprentices they are full time employees 

who earn a wage, which increases to a family wage level as the apprentice becomes 

more productive. They receive medical and other benefits and no longer need to rely 

on state or Federal agencies for assistance. This gives them the ability to stimulate 

the economy by putting their income back into their communities. People who build 

and maintain aircraft generally are not purchasing their own product. They may not 

be able afford to buy a plane; however, they may be able to afford an airplane ticket, 

and eat at the restaurant in the airport and buy a trinket at a tourist destination— 

again stimulating the economy. 

I want to leave you with this thought; Apprenticeships are not just about giving 

someone an education. Apprenticeships are a vital connection between education, 

workforce development and economic development. Apprenticeships are about empowering people to be autonomous and giving them education and career pathways 

in good solid family wage jobs. 

Senator CANTWELL. Thank you. 

And our last panelist, Mr. Tom McCarty. Thank you so much for 

being here. We have saved the best for last, and thank you for your 

work with the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in 

Aerospace. 

Thank you. 

STATEMENT OF TOM MCCARTY, PRESIDENT, SOCIETY OF 

PROFESSIONAL ENGINEERING EMPLOYEES IN AEROSPACE 

Mr. MCCARTY. Well, thank you for inviting me, Senator Cantwell. 

When I first received the invitation and read over the request, 

I am not an educator, and I thought, ‘‘What can I bring to this 

hearing?’’ And I represent 25,000 aerospace professionals in California, Kansas, Oregon, Utah, Texas, and Washington, and I have 

personally worked as a Boeing engineer for over 38 years. 

I meet with the people I represent every day. I meet with new 

hires, young engineers and technical workers just out of school. I 

meet with mid-career professionals and people that have had almost 40 years in the workplace, such as I have had, and will soon 

be leaving the workplace. 

And when I step back and look at this, I think about what are 

the challenges, what are the issues, what should we be doing in the 

next few years to maintain this profession and, in fact, more than 

53 

one profession, all of these professions of the professionals I represent? 

I look at all of this and I think I need to make it as simple as 

I can. It is about the jobs and what we do with these jobs every 

day and how we can maintain our skills. 

We talk a lot about we need to update our skills, and as a member of technical profession, we really are on the front line of that. 

We realize this more than everybody how fast and how incessantly 

the technology progresses. 

When I started as a young engineer, almost 40 years ago, there 

were no personal computers. It was unheard of. And now there are 

PCs on every desk, and as we have heard, students now coming, 

graduating and coming into the workplace, they are very familiar 

with this form of technology. But the important thing, again, which 

we have heard, is that we have to have fundamentals, and they 

haven’t changed. 

And being the last speaker, I have had to make some notes because people have covered some of the things I wanted to, and I 

wanted to add a few things that weren’t covered. But the fundamentals are important because unless a worker has a fundamental understanding of how to make measurements, what physics 

mean, what electricity means, how heat is transferred, they are not 

going to have the understanding to participate in today’s technical 

professions. And I represent engineers, scientists, technical workers, and pilots now at the Boeing Company. 

When I look back, how did I get interested in that? I was caught 

up in the transformation of what I consider the modern era, and 

I consider the modern era starting when I was born. 

[Laughter.] 

Mr. MCCARTY. And I looked up, as an eighth grader, and I saw 

the Sputnik, the light streak across the sky. And there was a huge 

transformation in American education and industry that that 

brought forth because people had a real, palatable fear that we 

were going to lose the space race to the Russians. 

I mean, this was something talked about every day in the press 

and in conversation and in our schools. So there was a resurgence 

in what we now call the STEM core curriculum, and I took advantage of that. I was very fortunate, and I was able to go to a community college. I went to a technical institute when I graduated from 

high school, and I got an associate’s of arts degree in electrical 

technology. 

And I went to work at Bell Telephone Laboratories, and by virtue 

of tuition matching, which was industry’s support, I was able to 

complete my engineering degree at Monmouth University funded 

by my employer. Those were really important things then, and they 

are really important now. 

And I know at Boeing, we still have partnering with funding 

both undergraduate and graduate degrees, and part of the testimony—I have used my 5 minutes. 

[Laughter.] 

Senator CANTWELL. Now there is a good engineer for you. 

[Laughter.] 

Mr. MCCARTY. I brought my own timer. And I didn’t realize I 

used my 5 minutes. 

54 

But I did want to say this. We, the members I represent—in 

summary, we are critically aware of the need to maintain our 

skills. Our professions require us to stay on the edge of technology. 

We are appealing to both the educational system and the employers to be active participants in maintaining these skills. 

We want to be participants. We use our own money. We invest 

our own time to maintain and improve these skills, and I think this 

partnership is absolutely essential if the American worker is going 

to maintain our position as the technology leaders in the global 

economy. We have to do that, and what was that? Failure is not 

an option. 

So, in conclusion, I want to emphasize that we are willing and 

able to do this, but we need the help of Government and educational institutions to foster and support this continuing learning 

that we are going to require. 

Thank you, Senator Cantwell. 

[The prepared statement of Mr. McCarty follows:] 

PREPARED STATEMENT OF TOM MCCARTY, PRESIDENT, 

SOCIETY OF PROFESSIONAL ENGINEERING EMPLOYEES IN AEROSPACE

My name is Tom McCarty and I am the President of the Society of Professional 

Engineering Employees in Aerospace. We represent more than 25,000 aerospace 

professionals in California, Kansas, Oregon, Utah, Texas and Washington. I’ve personally worked as a Boeing engineer since 1973. 

I’m here today to testify about the importance of scientific, technical, engineering 

and math education to our Nation’s national security and economic future. 

The Space Race and the Cold War both served to focus national attention and national resources on scientific, technical, engineering and math education. Public investments created private sector employment and a workforce equipped for those 

jobs. The resulting growth in technological advancement put men on the moon, won 

the Cold War and produced technology that has transformed the world. 

I was caught up in that transformation. And I have a clear memory as an 8th 

grader of watching the Russian Sputnik satellite streak across the night sky in October fifty-five years ago. American schools took up the challenge across the country. 

There was a universal commitment that we had to catch up with the Russians and 

that resulted in a new emphasis on mathematics and science education our schools. 

I personally benefited from that transformation and I was one of the thousands and 

thousands of students who were able to receive an affordable education as the result 

of public funding and corporate sponsorship. 

American society has been reaping the benefits of these investments for decades. 

However, our Nation is at risk of losing its preeminent position in the global economy due to the changing demographics of the aviation workforce. In short, we’re getting old. I’ll speak specifically of the workforce that my union represents but the 

trends are generally applicable to the entire aerospace industry. Nearly 40 percent 

of the engineering workforce at Boeing will be eligible to retire in the next few 

years. As this workforce moves into retirement, it’s not just their bodies that leave. 

The baby boomer retirement also represents a tremendous migration of intellectual 

capital out of the aerospace workforce. 

America’s position as the premier manufacturer of consumer goods has been seriously challenged in the last 50 years. Now our position as the high-technology aerospace supplier is threatened by credible, emerging high-technology development and 

manufacturing capability in South America and Asia. One of the larger markets for 

our high-technology output has been China. But for the past two decades, China has 

been aggressively implementing a plan to become a high-technology manufacturing 

leader in its own right. Whether we know it or not, we are engaged in a technology 

race that replaced the arms race once dominating our technology development. And 

just like the arms race, this is not a contest we can afford to lose. The consequences 

of that would be equally unacceptable for us and our children. 

Our employers generally recognize the need for continuing employee training. We 

need to work with them to insure these programs will continue to be funded. We 

need to help develop programs and policies to ensure education and retraining funding is available to the workforce on a continuing basis. Engineering and technical 

55 

workers have made a serious commitment of their own resources to acquire and 

maintain their technical skills. It is vital to maintain our ability to compete. We 

cannot do this unless we help these workers maintain the technical capabilities of 

our American workforce. 

A critical factor enabling the economic growth of this Nation was the commitment 

of society to fund universal education. The labor movement always recognized the 

importance of education and training and fought for universal education. In 1900, 

the goal was a literate workforce. A workforce of high-school graduates was considered more than adequate for the shops and mills at the turn of the century. That 

this is no longer sufficient for a high-tech workforce has been evident for quite 

awhile. Today, we see an alarming trend to reduce public funding for education at 

the very time we can least afford it. 

It is once again time for the American labor movement to pressure the public and 

private sectors to adequately fund the education of the American worker. It is not 

acceptable that qualified students are denied entry into our state universities for 

lack of funding. 

Our members are passionate about education. We have become a stronger and 

more effective force for change through our collective action. SPEEA members are 

already making their concerns known and are working for a better future. We serve 

on college advisory boards, we are members of school boards and volunteers from 

K–12, and we teach graduate courses at universities. We are partnering with our 

employers to provide more career growth opportunities in the workplace. 

The ability of American industry to compete is based on the investment in the 

American workforce. Technology is a moving target. Unless we constantly learn new 

skills and new ways to think about how we create our products, we will lose our 

ability to compete. This learning process has to be accomplished by actually designing and building aerospace products. The knowledge we bring to the job is only the 

starting point. That ability is refined and developed by the collaborative environment of problem-solving in the workplace. 

When technical work is outsourced, this begins the process of losing capability in 

that area which was outsourced. If this was not bad enough (and of itself it is), it 

gets worse because while our workforce is losing this opportunity to grow its skill 

base in this area, somewhere else, the workforce is now advancing its capability. In 

effect, we are falling behind at twice the rate. It’s not hard to imagine that soon 

we will have created a self-fulfilling prophecy. We will need to outsource the work 

because someone else can do it cheaper, faster or better. 

There is a critical mass of talent associated with a particular product or service. 

When that mass is achieved, a self-sustaining organization is created. New people 

join and bring new ideas and skills, and they are integrated into the experience base 

of the organization. In return, the experienced people share the specialized knowledge acquired over decades of product development and manufacture. This model 

has served American manufacturing very well, but now it is at risk. Outsourcing 

of the traditional work disrupts the flow of information and experience in both directions. The experienced workers lose the exposure to the emerging technologies, and 

the new workers do not get the full benefit of the tribal knowledge held by the experienced workers. When work is selected for outsourcing, these factors need to be 

carefully considered or the technical and innovative capabilities of the workforce can 

be drastically impacted. 

The solution is going to take teamwork. The players are the employee, business, 

schools and government—each has a critical role. It’s necessary for all of us to understand that role and become active partners in finding those solutions if we are 

going to preserve our position of leadership in high technology manufacturing. 

Senator CANTWELL. Thank you. 

Well, this is—go ahead and give him an applause because I—— 

[Applause.] 

Senator CANTWELL. I just feel that the passion that you all have 

expressed is exactly what I need to share with my colleagues and 

others in the State of Washington to get them to understand that 

this is a critical moment and that aviation has a bright future, but 

that we have to prepare for it. And certainly, we have job openings, 

but we have to fill the skills gap. 

And all of you are articulating some of those tools and things 

that we need to sharpen our focus on to make sure that that really 

56 

happens so that our State continues and the Nation continues to 

be a leader in aviation manufacturing. 

I wanted to start with you, Ms. Gilman. You mentioned the FAA 

being a better partner. And you were reminding me that NOAA 

has a program that is a sea grant fellow program, where they, 

through NOAA, help in the education and support of those people 

who are interested in coastal resource issues, and maybe we should 

be looking at something similar with the FAA. 

But we are about to, hopefully, reauthorize the new FAA bill and 

the next-generation system, and you were talking about formalizing the relationship even more. What did you have in mind 

besides something that would help with internships and programs? 

What are you looking for? 

Ms. GILMAN. We are looking for the people expertise that can 

share the knowledge and skills that they have had throughout a 

career. There is a gentleman who has come to our school, has been 

involved since the day we started. The depth of his knowledge in 

aerospace and engineering and what he can share with us is vastly 

different than the capacity we have on our staff. 

We would like to have those people sitting with us every day to 

share that knowledge and expertise and help us think about where 

we should be going. As most people in this room today have talked 

about, staying on the cutting edge, the bleeding edge, I think it is 

important for us. 

And in education, reform moves quite slowly. And unless you 

have the industry partnerships and those who really know from a 

policy perspective, like they do at the FAA, I think we are slower 

to respond to those emerging needs. 

Senator CANTWELL. Well, certainly, with the Next-Gen system, 

you would say that that would be a key opportunity with all of 

that. I mean, that is probably the biggest transformation on the 

Federal side in aviation in 30 or 40 years. And so, to have a good 

partnership then on how that delivery system and how the education would work would be very important. 

Ms. GILMAN. Absolutely. Our students will be part of a workforce 

that is very much changing. Right now, we have a number of graduates who want to work in unmanned aircraft systems, and we 

need to know more about it as educators so that we can prepare 

our students to go into those areas. 

Senator CANTWELL. And what about Ms. Schaeffer and others 

that mentioned this issue about fundamentals? I mean, Mr. 

McCarty talked about it as well. You are seeing students in your 

high school. Are they coming with a higher interest or skill level 

in those fundamentals, or are you having to teach those fundamentals in a way that is helping some of those students to really step 

up? 

Ms. GILMAN. Well, I think that the student body at Aviation 

High School, it is a cross-section that you would see in most public 

schools. I think the inspiration is to grapple with really complex 

problems that engineers, machinists, others are experiencing in the 

workforce so that they can solve those kinds of problems. 

Senator CANTWELL. So—— 

Ms. GILMAN. I wouldn’t say they all come with the inspiration to 

do high-level work. But certainly, when you ask them to build a 

57 

product, develop a heat shield, or to test the structural integrity of 

a wing beam, and you present that, you require students to present 

that to industry experts, that becomes your high-stakes part of 

learning. 

And students want to do better when they know that the people 

they would like to be like are assessing their work and giving them 

feedback. 

Senator CANTWELL. So that is on the inspiration side. Back to 

the fundamental side, Ms. Schaeffer, were you saying that at the 

entry-level, some of these people are coming in even for these 2- 

year certificate programs without the entry-level skills that you are 

looking for to put them into these certificate programs? 

Ms. SCHAEFFER. The certificate programs, to have two certificate 

programs completed takes 12 weeks. We are finding that probably 

half of the students do not have the fundamentals of math. So we 

do an intensive math learning with the students. 

We find that once the students are in the certificate, once they 

are in it, they are passionate about airplanes. Then learning math 

and some of the other fundamentals becomes something more desirable for them to learn, and they grasp it. With the addition of 

the online learning, they can repeat it and do remedial learning. 

Senator CANTWELL. So what is the entry-level math that you put 

them through before you get them into the certificate program? 

Ms. SCHAEFFER. They come into our certificate program with a 

high school diploma or a GED requirement, and we train them for 

the math if they don’t understand the math concepts. 

Senator CANTWELL. And what does that mean, you train them 

for that? 

Ms. SCHAEFFER. We train them on the basic fundamentals, decimals, fractions—— 

Senator CANTWELL. Within the certificate program, you are saying? 

Ms. SCHAEFFER. Yes. Yes. 

Senator CANTWELL. OK. OK. And what do you think about that, 

Laura? What are you seeing in the apprentice program on that 

same issue of fundamentals? 

Ms. HOPKINS. Yes. We have the same dilemma. We have employers who are ready to hire, and they are trying to find people. In 

fact, today, I have an employer up in Snohomish County is looking 

for 20 employees. Another one is looking for 15, and they are coming to us, saying ‘‘can you help us find good candidates for these 

positions’’ because they are having a hard time finding folks who 

have the fundamental skills. 

So what we are looking at doing right now with that particular 

group of employers is running our manufacturing academy. They 

are actually looking at paying us to run one of our manufacturing 

academy programs, which will teach the fundamentals. Everything 

from safety to manufacturing basics—so it is not just the math, but 

it includes math, physics, and also basic hand tool usage. Because 

most of the folks, as somebody mentioned, they don’t grow up working in their garage anymore. So they don’t even know how to use 

a drill or a bandsaw or anything like that. 

So, in our manufacturing academy, we have this opportunity for 

them to learn all those fundamentals. We are able to identify who 

58 

the really hard-working folks are and who are really determined to 

do this kind of work and who have the mechanical aptitude. And 

then we place them directly into these jobs. 

As soon as they get hired, then they join the apprenticeship program. It is an ongoing career path, where they can start with having no skills and end up being a master mechanic. 

Senator CANTWELL. So, Jim, we are missing something here on 

this shop side, aren’t we? I know a young person who just told me 

the other day, who was very good at building and shop, and I said, 

‘‘How come you are not taking more classes?’’ And it really is that 

it is very hard for them to continue that. They don’t really have 

the choice. 

I mean, is there something we should be doing, Ms. Gilman? I 

mean, you are seeing this in one high school. But are there other 

things that we could be doing at other high schools to stir the interest? 

Ms. GILMAN. Thank you for asking that. I loved your comments 

about shop class because—and it just reminds me that if we don’t 

provide the inspiration during the high school years—sooner would 

be nicer—that we don’t get people who end up in the industries for 

which we need their skills and their knowledge. 

Shop at Aviation High School could be in an English class. It 

could be in any class there because we don’t use the concept of— 

the context of aviation and aerospace just to be in a class where 

they may be building an airplane or trying to figure out how to engineer something, innovate something new. But that context is 

spread throughout the entire curriculum. 

So students might be designing a set to perform Macbeth here 

on this stage at the Museum of Flight using an aviation context, 

and they still can learn the types of skills that you were referring 

to. I was a technical educator for many years, and I realized that 

you have to blend the two. It doesn’t happen just in isolation. 

And I think that Laura and Ms. Schaeffer and everyone who has 

spoken here today would love to have students come to them that 

they could accelerate rather than remediate. And as a skills center 

director, that spoke to me and seeing students come, as juniors and 

seniors, who were not prepared to do the kinds of work. They didn’t 

have the math/science backgrounds that they needed to do. 

They didn’t understand that if you want to be a world-class chef, 

you do have to know math. And so, I think you can do it in other 

schools if you make a context run across the curriculum rather 

than separating it. 

Senator CANTWELL. Back to the overall apprentice numbers. How 

many job openings do you think that we have right now that could 

be filled by apprentice? I mean, what do you think the demand is 

for—— 

Ms. HOPKINS. That is a really great question. I think right now, 

currently, we have over 90 apprentices in the system, and we are 

growing like crazy. We have actually tripled in size this summer 

and are expecting to do similarly by winter quarter. 

So, in terms of the numbers, we know that we have the capacity 

for thousands. Right now, the big hurdle for us is around the economy because with an apprentice, they have to get hired. So an employer has to invest in this person enough to actually hire them on, 

59 

give them benefits, and all that. So it is easy—it is not so simple 

as someone just going to college. 

So, as the economy has started to shift, in the manufacturing 

sector, we are seeing more and more employers who we have been 

talking to for the last 2 years suddenly say, OK, now I am ready. 

I am actually hiring. Let us put people in. 

And so, we are expecting to grow. But we definitely have the capacity to do thousands of apprentices, and we think the employers 

are out there. We already have those partnerships that are growing. 

A lot of these folks that we are working with have never thought 

of apprenticeship before. It seems like something they would have 

been involved in in the manufacturing sector, but they haven’t 

been. So we are actually introducing them to the concept of what 

apprenticeship is, how it works, and kind of trying to work them 

through some of their fear issues around Government getting involved in their business. 

And once we get those issues resolved, we are able to help get 

them on. And so, what has happened now is we have had employers who participated, put in one or two. They have tried it out. 

They have seen that it is good. They are putting more in, and they 

are talking to their colleagues about apprenticeship programs. So 

it is growing quite rapidly now. 

Senator CANTWELL. So you would have said that the demand 

could have been there sooner, but now employers really feel like 

they are in that hiring sprint that they now they wish—— 

Ms. HOPKINS. Right. 

Senator CANTWELL.—there is more demand? 

Ms. HOPKINS. Yes, exactly. 

Senator CANTWELL. So if we would have had it timed perfectly 

2 years ago, we would have accelerated. Is that right or—— 

Ms. HOPKINS. Well, we started 2 years ago, but the employers 

couldn’t hire. Because of the economy, they were actually laying off. 

So they weren’t in a position, even though when we would go out 

there and talk to these employers, they would look out at their 

shop, and they see all these folks with gray hair who they know 

are their last remaining folks who know how to work on this machine, on these processes. 

But they couldn’t replace them, as much as they wanted to, because they were just trying to survive. So they would say, please, 

help us. And we would say we would love to, but you have to hire 

somebody in order to put them in the apprenticeship program. That 

was the great catch–22 that we were in. And now that we are seeing a shift in the manufacturing sector where they are starting to 

pick up now, slowly but surely, then they are putting them in. 

So in terms of what would help us be able to put more people 

in, one of the things that we are going after in Washington State 

is a tax incentive for employers every time they hire an apprentice 

they would get a $5,000 tax incentive for doing so. And our employers that we have talked to said that that would be significant for 

them. 

Of course, that is at a State level at this point. But that is what 

we are trying to put forth for the next session. 

60 

Senator CANTWELL. And Mr. Dunlap, Ms. Gilman talked about 

spreading the Aviation High School to other parts of the State. You 

are seeing these potential workforce candidates at the certificate 

level. What do you think about that as it relates to Spokane? 

Dr. DUNLAP. Yes, I think that is an excellent idea. In my experience, when you can contextualize education, it becomes far more 

meaningful for students, and they can make connections to the real 

world. And so, an aviation high school does precisely that. 

There are other magnet-type high schools that do that in other 

disciplines, but I think there is a great opportunity to get young 

people interested in the aerospace industry cluster by starting at 

an earlier age. And so, I think it is a great idea to expand the concept of aviation high schools throughout the State. 

Senator CANTWELL. OK. And one note, I know that part of the 

Department of Labor grant will focus on helping the education and 

training of returning veterans. But is there more to be done there? 

Since there is a good, trained skill set already there with our veterans, having so many of them returning creates an opportunity to 

focus on how to upgrade their skills to meet the demand that is 

being sought right now in aviation. Would that be a very good 

thing to do? 

Dr. DUNLAP. Yes, and Laura is actually working on a portion of 

that as well. One of the difficulties for our returning veterans is 

that while they may have worked and acquired aviation-related 

skills, they don’t receive the FAA certification for that while they 

are in the service. 

And so, when they get out of the service, there is no formal process or easy process for them to take those skills and then get FAA 

certification for those. And oftentimes, they are told they have to 

start from the beginning. And in other instances, they may be 

given some credit for the schooling that they have learned. 

And so, that is one of the things of that we are trying to tackle, 

and Laura can address that as well, I believe, in terms of how do 

we provide a system for veterans so that they receive the credit for 

the training and experience they had in the service. 

Ms. HOPKINS. Yes. Just to expand on that a little bit, in today’s 

world, the FAA has a system by which if you go to an A&P school 

or an airframe and power plant school, you can then apply to take 

a test to get your airframe and power plant license. You can also 

apply to take that test with work experience. 

However, you have to have a certain kind of documentation, and 

it has to be documented in a certain way. And so, what is happening today is people are coming out of the military without the 

same documentation standards that the FAA requires in order to 

meet those—be able to go, apply to take that test. 

And so, you may have people coming out of the service who both 

have the same experience level, but when they go to the FAA, depending on who the FAA person is interpreting that, they could interpret it different ways. So there is two pieces to this. 

One is that the military doesn’t provide the proper documentation that they need by the time they leave service. So that is the 

first piece. And the second piece is that when they do finally arrive 

at the FAA, there isn’t a standardized documentation system in 

place. So there isn’t a thing that says, OK, if you have done this, 

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this, and this, and it looks this way, you will then be able to go, 

take your airframe and power plant. 

So it really is up to the FAA inspector. So if you show up 1 day 

and you get Joe, they may allow you to go take both your airframe 

and power plant tests. You show up the next day and you get 

Susan, you may have to go back to A&P school for 2 years. And 

it is up to that inspector you happen to run into that time. 

Senator CANTWELL. Well, with the number of returning veterans, 

that would be something that I think would be easy to fix. I am 

not saying anything at the FAA is easy to fix, but—— 

Ms. HOPKINS. Right. 

[Laughter.] 

Senator CANTWELL. I am saying that it seems that if you could 

agree on what that standardization is, that you can set up a system, right? Is that correct? Because you are talking about somebody who is an aviation mechanic in the military. So different aircraft, different structure, but very similar backgrounds. 

Ms. HOPKINS. Right. There are a couple of tricky things to this. 

One is that because the airframe and power plant license, the way 

that they are structured, when you go to take your license, you 

have to test on every type of aircraft. So small aircraft to large aircraft. 

Most of the folks coming out of military only have experience 

working on large aircraft. But there is a Federal aviation regulation that states that you can’t combine work experience and education together to be able to qualify to go take your test. 

So the military people coming out of service can’t go to the FAA 

and the FAA say, OK, you just have turbine experience—you 

haven’t had experience working on reciprocating engine. Go back to 

school just for that. Instead, they have to tell them start over. 

Senator CANTWELL. So what would the solution be in that instance? 

Ms. HOPKINS. Right. If they could change the law so that they 

could go to the local community college and just take the piece of— 

the section of class that they just need and not the entire 2 years, 

that would be—that would transform the aviation education experience. It is an antiquated law that makes no sense in today’s world, 

but it still exists. 

Senator CANTWELL. OK. Great. 

All right. Anything else from the panelists? You guys have been 

great today. Thank you so much for your work in this area. 

Any final comments that anybody wants to make? I gave the first 

panel an option. You guys were so inspirational, I don’t know that 

I need to ask the same question. But I will ask a different one. If 

there was one thing that we could do that would be helpful, what 

do you think that would be as it relates to preparing this workforce 

and to helping you do your individual jobs? 

And maybe we will start at the other end since—Mr. McCarty, 

if you wanted to start with that? 

Mr. MCCARTY. Well, there is ‘‘a thing’’ that we are doing, and we 

certainly can use support, and I want to bring it to your attention, 

Senator. And it is here in Washington State is receiving a lot of 

attention. That is the First Robotics competition. 

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Boeing is a large sponsor of that, as well as other companies here 

in Washington State. SPEEA has been an ongoing sponsor, and I 

am hoping to increase our role. SPEEA members work with the robotics teams in the schools and help them build their robots. 

But the point was how do you get young people interested in pursuing a career in manufacturing, aerospace, engineering, or the 

technical fields, and how do you give them hands-on experience? As 

we have heard, a lot of dads don’t have garages or moms don’t have 

garages to bring their daughters in and teach them some of these 

skills. 

But we can take that to the schools, and the students get their 

kit, they put on their safety glasses, they pick up their drills. They 

drill and solder and build their robots, and it generates a lot of enthusiasm and exposure. 

So we can do these kind of things. They are not terribly expensive, and they generate interest and enthusiasm in our young people and show them that a technical career can be interesting, rewarding, and satisfying. 

Senator CANTWELL. Has that already taken place this year, or is 

it still coming up, the robotic competition? 

Mr. MCCARTY. I think this cycle is completed, and after the first 

of the year, we will be starting the next cycle. 

Senator CANTWELL. All right. Thank you. 

Ms. HOPKINS. I actually have three things. I know I am supposed 

to stick to one. But—— 

Senator CANTWELL. OK. 

Ms. HOPKINS.—the first thing, I would say, is assistance with the 

FAA. We have a lot of issues that we are trying to resolve with the 

FAA. And so, getting to a place of collaboration rather than where 

now it seems like we are constantly battling them would be a really 

significant step for us to be able to move forward. So that would 

be one big piece. 

The second item would be around apprenticeship utilization. We 

are far behind other nations around the world in terms of utilizing 

apprenticeship. Even just in Scotland, they have an $800 million 

budget in Scotland for apprenticeship. I think, in Washington 

State, we have about a $1 million budget for the entire system. So 

there is a lot of work that could be done there around supporting 

apprenticeships and using that as a model of training. 

And then the third piece I would just say is partnerships. I had 

the great opportunity to go to the Paris Air Show this past year. 

And while we were there, we were able to witness the collaboration 

between Lufthansa Airlines and their local entities. And they actually created not an organization, but they built a site that was utilized in partnership, and it was funded by a partnership of the university, the 2-year and community technical colleges, businesses, 

and the government all came together and chipped in. And they all 

share that site. 

So they have one fuselage, and on there, you have the university 

researchers doing research on how to utilize the cargo space. On 

the top part of that fuselage, you have wiring where the 2-year degree folks are learning how the wiring system works, and they are 

transferring information between each other. And the government 

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and the employees are the ones who are funding the researchers 

from the university. 

And so, this amazing partnership model I think is something 

that we are going to need to do more and more in the United 

States in order to be more efficient and effective. 

Thank you. 

Senator CANTWELL. Thank you. 

Dr. DUNLAP. Well, I had two things. And Laura mentioned one, 

and that is to bring the FAA training systems into the 21st century. That desperately needs to be done not only for veterans, but 

just in terms of bringing the curriculum up to date. 

The second is that many of our career and technical programs 

are funded by Carl Perkins funding, which is Federal funding for 

those types of programs. And it seems that every legislative session, there is a threat to cancel or reduce funding for those programs. 

And it is critical that that funding remain in place or even increase because without that, you will see even more career and 

technical programs at the high school and college level disappear. 

Senator CANTWELL. Thank you. 

Ms. Schaeffer? 

Ms. SCHAEFFER. Additional funding support for the student loan 

program that we have through the WATR Center, as well as some 

funding support to the skills centers so their students can participate and earn that core aerospace certificate before they graduate. 

Senator CANTWELL. Before they graduate from the—— 

Ms. SCHAEFFER. High school. 

Senator CANTWELL. OK. And how many high schools offer that? 

Ms. SCHAEFFER. We would collaborate with the high schools or 

the skills centers, as we are starting to do now. And Edmonds 

Community College WATR Center is offering some scholarships. 

But if we could offer more scholarship-type opportunities for those 

high school students to recruit them and get them excited, we are 

sure that more and more students would pursue aviation and aerospace. 

Senator CANTWELL. OK. Ms. Gilman? 

Ms. GILMAN. Well, my recommendation is to create more models 

that are responsive to workplace, workforce needs. And that would 

be a longer conversation than right now, but we would like to be 

asked. We would like to be engaged in the conversation and the 

work to help to be more responsive. And certainly, that needs to 

go from kindergarten through 12th grade and on into the post-secondary education system. 

Senator CANTWELL. Great. Mr. Bearden? 

Mr. BEARDEN. I think, first off, I would have to agree with Laura 

that we have fallen behind as a country. And I think some of the 

evidence of that is—and this is no offense to the industry and corporations—is how they are looking for quicker fixes to the problems 

they are facing right now. I think that is because they have let our 

manufacturing and training of young folks to fill in when us folks 

that are going to retire, leave, do. 

We like to call the apprenticeship the original 4-year degree because when you hire a journeyman, a graduated apprentice that is 

now a journeyman, you can’t have a finer employee, skills wise. I 

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can point to few of them sitting in this room that I know are journeymen. 

I think that this is all of our problem. This isn’t a problem that 

the Government just needs to throw money at or the companies 

need to throw money at. This is a decision on whether we want this 

country to remain the number-one manufacturing country in the 

world. And if we believe that, then we all have to invest. Whatever 

we can invest, we have to, whether it is our time, whether it is volunteering, whether it is companies supporting apprenticeships, like 

AJAC and our internal IAM-Boeing joint apprenticeship. 

That is what we have to do, and it is a decision that we need 

to make. And if we keep waiting, we are going to be the losers. 

Senator CANTWELL. Well, I can’t say it better than that. So we 

will definitely take this information back to Washington, D.C. 

Again, thank you all for participating in it, and I thank the chairman of the committee for allowing us to have this field hearing. 

We are going to focus on aviation manufacturing, Mr. Bearden. 

We are not going to let that happen. We are going to take up the 

charge, and I just thank everyone for participating in this important hearing and look forward to working with you on these solutions. 

We are adjourned. 

[Applause.] 

[Whereupon, at 12:33 p.m., the hearing was adjourned.] 

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