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Companies, Colleges Team Up To Develop Talent
Many aerospace companies and universities have
forged alliances that include research and development projects
for graduate students and employees serving as course instructors.
Erik Pillet, Airbus Industrie's senior vice president for human
resources, said these alliances are critical to ensuring that graduates
are ready to contribute fully once on the job.
 Besides
its aeronautics programs, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University
is offering new courses in applied meteorology, safety science
and air traffic management. |
Graduates from the U.K.'s Cranfield University
help current students at the college.
"The alumni association is very strong," said
Patrick Peal of Cranfield's College of Aeronautics, who noted that
such support has helped place graduates with companies in the U.S.
as well as Europe. Peal said the most pressing need of aerospace
companies is for graduates who have hands-on experience and have
participated in aircraft design and structural projects.
Despite warnings about declining nationwide
aerospace student enrollment, Purdue University's aerospace student
population is up 20% from a year ago. While the number of female
students there has grown to 20%, the number of minority students
is down slightly.
"I think the general increase in enrollment is
because there has been a lot of excitement generated about aerospace,"
said Tom Farris, a professor at the Purdue School of Aeronautics
and Astronautics. "The competition for minority students is intense,
making it harder every year for us to make progress."
Farris said the one pressing need most university
programs have is for cooperative education or internships.
As part of its alumni and corporate partnership
efforts, Purdue has established the Raisbeck Engineering Distinguished
Professorship for Engineering and Technology Integration. The $2-million
program allows Purdue to bring in a visiting professor to share
specific expertise.
James Raisbeck, founder of Raisbeck Engineering
in Seattle, said the professorship provides a way to ensure continued
links to the university and the quality of its programs.
Vascar Harris, head of the aeronautical program
at Tuskegee (Ala.) University and a former Tuskegee Airman, said
the institution continues to be the No. 1 producer of African-American
aerospace engineers. The school began offering an accredited engineering
program in 1982.
"Clearly, tradition and heritage are part of
our program," said Harris. "It sets the motivation. We have a small,
accredited program that provides a good education, and that pretty
much guarantees jobs to graduates. We just wish we had more students
to take advantage of the positions."
Harris and Tuskegee are working with a consortium
of historically black colleges with accredited engineering programs—Prairie
View University, Southern University, North Carolina A&T, Hampton
University, Howard University, Morgan State, Florida A&M and Tennessee
State—to extend the reach of these engineering schools to African-Americans.
Among their efforts is a virtual university in which all of the
aforementioned schools will collaborate on research, share faculty
and collaborate on research contracts that will offer still more
opportunities to students and faculty.
Thomas McKnight, chairman of the Airway Science
Dept. at Delaware State University, said enrollment has been increasing
about 10% every year, due primarily to an increase in pilot hiring.
Just as many airlines are using personal computers for pilot training
to save money and because flight simulator time is difficult to
obtain, the college is using PCs in its training programs.
The U.S. Air Force Academy offers some unique
educational opportunities. Cadets in the highly regarded aerospace
and aeronautics courses work on research programs ranging from NASA's
X-38 crew recovery vehicle to hypersonic missile development and
jet engine fatigue studies. The laboratory is equipped with wind
tunnels and engine test cells.
The academy also offers a flight test course
for cadets entering their senior year. Faculty members are offered
flights to increase competency in aeronautical knowledge. In addition,
the academy has upgraded its program to offer hands-on rocket/spacecraft
research projects.
The academy has graduated 264 engineers and
2,124 flight-training candidates since 1997.
The College of Aeronautics at New York's LaGuardia
Airport has been preparing airframe and powerplant (A&P) technicians
since 1936. Although 30% of the college's students are enrolled
in the A&P curriculum, Herb Armstrong, vice president of academic
affairs, said an increasing number of students are interested in
computer-aided design (CAD), airport management and flight operations.
Armstrong said the college is considering expansion
in another area— engineering technology. "Internships are a growing
piece of the program, particularly as we expand courses in the management
area and CAD."
The College of Aeronautics also is extending
its flight program and expects to establish a second home at Newburg,
N.Y. "This will allow us to expand demographically and evaluate
the possibility of a residential campus," Armstrong explained.
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU),
one of the top aviation schools, has revamped its programs, offering
more baccalaureate degrees and switching its A&P program from an
associate's degree to a non-academic program that is designed to
lead to FAA certification.
ERAU's new degrees include a B.S. in applied
meteorology. Paul Bankit, chief academic officer, said this degree
reflects changes in the field of meteorology and the changing demand
for weather services.
"We are shifting from a strictly scientific academic
preparation to an applications orientation," said Bankit.
Students can choose a concentration in flight
weather, media weather, commercial weather or research.
ERAU also has added a bachelor's degree in safety
science. The program is designed to produce safety professionals
for aviation, aerospace and other advanced technology settings.
The university also offers a master's degree in safety science.
To meet the projected increase in demand for
air traffic controllers, ERAU now offers a bachelor's degree in
air traffic management.
Toni Sauer, director of the air science programs
at Dowling College, in Shirley, N.Y., said his institution continues
to evolve its programs in order to draw more people to aviation
careers. Last year, Dowling launched a program to attract young,
at-risk females to an aviation summer camp.
The University of Maryland, Eastern Shore (UMES)
has made several changes to offer an increasingly high-level aviation
program. A "wingman" program pairs each UMES freshman with an upper-class
mentor. The school plans to establish its own aircraft fleet during
the next 5-10 years and increase the use of its Frasca 142 simulator
for instrument flight training.
Ronald B. Levy, aviation sciences program coordinator,
said that while UMES, a historically black university, draws its
aviation students primarily from Maryland, the international student
population, particularly from African and Caribbean countries, continues
to grow.
"As such, we have a strong commitment to minority
and other traditionally underserved and underrepresented students,"
said Levy. "More than 15% of our students are women, which is three
times the national figure of 5% of the pilot population."
Pan Am International Flight Academy is working
closely with approximately 200 airlines to develop new talent through
its air traffic control, flight attendant and career pilot training
programs.
Pan Am has invested about $6 million in two
state-of-the-art campuses— one at Deer Valley Airport in Phoenix
and the other at St. Lucie Airport in Fort Pierce, Fla. Todd Huvard,
the company's vice president of marketing and communications, said,
"We can have new students ready for the airlines in about 13 months."
A Pan Am program called ACE serves as a bridge
that allows newly minted pilots to gain the operational experience
they need to fly for an airline. Five regional carriers have conditional
agreements with Pan Am to hire graduates of the program.
A relatively new school, the Robert C. Byrd
National Aerospace Education Center, is already attempting to double
its existing space to meet the growing need for maintenance technicians.
The component of Fairmont State College, which is located in the
Mid-Atlantic Aerospace Complex at Benedum Airport in Clarksburg,
W. Va., graduated its first class in 1994. Of the 140 students currently
enrolled at NAEC, some 110 are working toward associate degrees
in aviation maintenance technology, while the rest are taking four-year
courses in technology management or aviation administration.
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