OKLAHOMA: How Oklahoma Stocks Its Aviation Talent Pond
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How Oklahoma Stocks Its Aviation Talent Pond
Oklahoma’s commitment to aerospace education is hard to beat, and it’s a big part of why aerospace is among the state’s most important industries. Nine higher education institutions in Oklahoma have aerospace degree and certificate programs, including Oklahoma State University’s doctorate in unmanned aerial systems (UAS) design, the first such program in the U.S.
But there’s more to Oklahoma’s aerospace education commitment than that. For the third consecutive year, the Sooner State was named the top state in the nation for the number of high schools teaching, or planning to in the upcoming school year, the You Can Fly curriculum designed by the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA) Foundation.
On June 7, Lieutenant Governor Matt Pinnell spoke at the opening of the Oklahoma Aerospace Education Training Summit at Tulsa International Airport. “Oklahoma’s commitment to aerospace education is unmatched,” he noted. “Being number one in the nation for three consecutive years is a remarkable achievement and a reflection of our state’s dedication to fostering the next generation of aerospace professionals. Aerospace is Oklahoma’s fastest growing industry, and our continued investment will ensure we have the talent necessary to fill incoming jobs.”
Resources for MROs
Oklahoma is home to more than 1,100 aerospace entities that combined employ more than 120,000 people. They work at some of the largest aerospace companies in the world, including Boeing, Raytheon, Pratt & Whitney and Northrop Grumman, among many others. The state is home to the two largest maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) facilities — the American Airlines Maintenance and Engineering Center in Tulsa (Tech Ops – Tulsa), where more than 5,500 Oklahomans work, and the Oklahoma Air Logistics Complex at Tinker Air Force Base, where more than 25,000 work.
In December 2023, Oklahoma’s Business Expansion Incentive Program awarded American Airlines $22 million over the next three years to expand its MRO base, bringing the airline’s investment there to more than $400 million in recent years. This latest incentive will allow for the hiring of more than 300 at the maintenance base. Tech Ops – Tulsa has about 3.3 million sq. ft. of building space and six hangars accommodating 24 aircraft bays.
A key education resource for Oklahoma’s aviation industry is Choose Aerospace, a non-profit partnership of companies, labor groups and educational institutions working on cultivating interest in aerospace careers to ensure a pipeline of talent. It aims to make aerospace technical programs more accessible. In 2020, it developed an aviation maintenance curriculum for use in secondary schools to enhance aviation education programs.
A key supporter of Choose Aerospace is aviation services provider AAR Corp. The company participates in an effort with the Aviation Technician Education Council (ATEC) to donate surplus aviation materials to ATEC schools. In April, AAR broke ground on a three-bay MRO facility in Oklahoma City near its existing operations at Will Rogers World Airport.
“Finding a way to take aged inventory and repurpose these items for the education of future technicians is an initiative we’ve been working towards for a long time,” said Ryan Goertzen, AAR’s vice president of workforce development and Choose Aerospace’s president, in March, when the program reached the milestone of $2 million worth of supplied inventory. “AAR is proud to be one of the first to join this partnership, but we do not expect to be the last.”
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