Aviation Workforce Development Practices (2010)

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28 CONCLUSIONS The purpose of this synthesis report was to better understand the aviation workforce and the current workforce develop- ment practices in the aviation industry, outside of flight crew, airline management, and air traffic management positions. To conduct this synthesis, a combination of a literature-based review and discussions with key organizations within vari- ous sectors of the aviation industry and institutions of higher education were performed. There are both issues and solutions that exist when it comes to meeting the workforce development needs of the aviation industry. Issues revealed as part of this study include: • There is little specific data regarding the number and types of jobs that exist in the aviation industry, outside of flight crew and air traffic management positions. • Recruiting and hiring of the aviation workforce is gen- erally done through open job announcements, despite the fact that jobs within the industry often require very specific education and training. As a result, a significant number of the aviation workforce enters the industry with little aviation-specific education or experience. • Aviation industry organizations, including airports and ground service providers, do engage in various levels of workforce development. Such programs are often conducted in-house and tend to focus on entry-level training; further development efforts, particularly for management training, when performed in-house are often ad-hoc in nature. • Workforce development in the aviation industry is focused on individual training and less on the organi- zational and systematic components of a comprehen- sive workforce development program. • There are a number of professional organizations that have developed training and certification programs for the purpose of developing the existing aviation work- force and there are a number of institutions of higher education that have developed curricula to educate the future aviation workforce. • There are a number of innovative practices, programs, and activities that leverage the resources of aviation industries and higher education institutions that may opti- mize the industry’s workforce development strategies. This study has revealed that the use of internships and other programs that partner industry with institutions of higher edu- cation may be one of the most productive methods of work- force development. However, it was also revealed that a sig- nificant portion of the industry does not participate in such programs, and moreover, may be hesitant to embark on such efforts. The reason for this may be that industry organizations may be unfamiliar with the process of establishing, managing, and assessing the effectiveness of internship programs, and thus have difficulty justifying the effort. An ancillary but important result of the queries and inter- views conducted for this study was the expression of fiscal concern when it comes to workforce development programs. Many airports and small aviation industry organizations have limited resources to dedicate to areas outside of their core business functions. Many interviewees expressed their desire to invest in formal workforce development programs but have difficulties receiving budgetary approval to do so. This is particularly true in the public sector, including primarily small general aviation airports owned and operated by smaller municipalities with limited funds. FURTHER RESEARCH There is a clear need to have a better understanding of the avi- ation industry workforce. While the industry has detailed data on the number of registered pilots, the number of airport oper- ations staff, for example, is far less explicitly known. This necessary information could be developed through a compre- hensive survey of the aviation industry workforce. This study would include an inventory of aviation jobs at the nation’s air- ports, the aviation support industries, aviation planning, engi- neering, and consulting firms, and state and federal agencies. A study of the wide variety of organizational structures that exist within these organizations might also be included. In addition to learning more about the current inventory of the aviation workforce, an understanding of how profession- als in the industry advance through their careers is needed. A professional ethnographic study may reveal the most success- ful career pathways for members of the aviation workforce. Once such an inventory is completed, future research may consider the goal of developing comprehensive workforce development programs for the aviation industry that consider more than simply employee training, including comprehen- sive programs from an institutional level. CHAPTER FIVE CONCLUSIONS

29 Such research may study: • Formalizing and standardizing performance assessment methods, • Analyzing organizational structures to determine the best environments for the workforce to perform, • Developing formal and consistent funding mechanisms to support continuous and comprehensive workforce devel- opment programs (in part by researching existing funded programs at agencies such as the U.S. Department of Labor and Education), and • Creating bridge programs among airports, private indus- try, and government agencies. Such programs would advance the practice of workforce development in the industry to a cross-institutional level. It would be useful to study the need for a guidebook for assisting airports and other aviation industry organizations on the concept of workforce development planning. This might include: how to recruit talent, how to nurture and train incoming talent, best practices for organizational efficiency, the practice of continuing education, best practices for retaining the industry’s best and brightest, and succession planning. Performing an analysis on the best practices of intern- ship programs in the industry may lead to the development of a separate guidebook on creating and management intern- ship programs. Furthermore, this research could lead to the development of cross-institutional intern and rotational programs.