Earlier this week the Center of Excellence hosted a breakfast event that brought together aerospace industry trade groups, community colleges, labor and apprenticeships, state agencies, K12, municipalities and others.
Together the group talked through their current grants and projects, sharing information and considering how to work together to expand access to aeropsace careers.
It was great to see people in person again, said Jason Petrait, Center of Excellence Executive Director. There’s so much value in sitting down over breakfast to hear what partners are taking on, how they view the industry right now, and what their focus will be for 2023. Jason shared a few takeaways from the event:
- Grants are available federal, state, and local to move shared work forward. This is an opportune moment to ensure we’re serving industry.
- The biggest concern is finding people, both in industry and for programs. Where five years ago we talked about the skills gap, now we’re focusing on demographic challenges and simply finding people.
- Our systems have capacity to train jobseekers and workers, partner with industry, and coordinate among ourselves.
- We must continue growing interest in aerospace at younger ages. That takes ongoing dedicated work and coordination.
- We have an opportunity to advocate in Olympia for our sector this January. See https://www.afa-wa.com for more in the coming weeks.
Thank you to attendees and especially to the team at PNAA, our thought partner for this event.