By Kathryn B. Creedy
Analysis
May 6, 2026, © Leeham News: The history of workforce issues is long–40 years–and dozens of efforts have attempted to address workforce shortages as we’ve bumped along, complaining about the problem and waiting for someone else to solve it.
Those involved in previous efforts warn that they failed because there was no accountability, and no one took responsibility for making things happen. They also cited the efforts staffed by volunteers. Now, our shortages are more acute than ever and threaten not only our economy but also our ability to grow.
Government studies often get shelved, gathering dust instead of solving the problem that study addressed. Credit: Bold Planning.
Over the past 40 years, Washington aviation/aerospace policy groups have focused on government solutions. After all, that is what they do, but it is time for a rethink. That is not to belittle the impressive accomplishments achieved when industry comes together, including workforce education grants and the robust education programs in FAA AvSED and NASA.
But if we do not act on our own, we will probably be having the same conversation decades from now. Instead, we could be leveraging the hundreds of great education programs already in place to solve our workforce issues once and for all.
Case in point of how we fail. It has been four years since the Congressionally mandated Youth Access to American Jobs in Aviation (YIATF) Report was issued, and nothing has been done, although private interests have been trying. It now sits gathering dust on some shelf. Ironically, we’ve seen this before, since the 2022 report was largely a repeat of the 20+-year-old Brewer Report. Nothing came of either effort.
Studies for inaction
This excruciatingly illustrates the problem. The government would rather produce a study than take concrete action to solve a problem. It likes to be seen as doing something, hoping no one will notice it is accomplishing nothing. There is no accountability, and no one is responsible. We cannot rely on governments to fund or solve our problems, especially since FAA reauthorization remains years away.
Analysis: Youth Task Force Presents Daunting Challenges but Energizing Solutions
FAA reauthorization bills have called for the National Center for the Advancement of Aviation (NCAA), which never passed into law. The idea, expanded to include aerospace, would gain credibility if industry understood how much is happening organically and that it only needs paid staff to bring order out of the current chaos.
Aviation/Aerospace companies are largely unaware of the many assets that constitute a grassroots pathway to our careers. What few understand is that the programs we need are already there, but the public doesn’t know about them. To find them, we send parents, teachers, guidance counselors, and educators all over the internet.
The Organizations and the Army
Programs have been developed by private nonprofit organizations stepping in to promote aviation and aerospace careers, including Women in Aviation International, Organization of Black Aerospace Professionals, Latino Professionals in Aerospace, Civil Air Patrol, Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA), the Space Foundation, and Space Workforce for Tomorrow.
Every one of these organizations, along with hundreds of others, has sophisticated aviation/aerospace education programs, including middle and high school curricula, but must be organized into an Early-Learning-to-Career Pipeline already in development.
Women in Aviation International attracts more than 40,000 kids to its annual Girls in Aviation Day worldwide. Credit – Creedy
Many of these organizations have joined together in an alliance to promote each other’s programming to better promote our careers. That alliance is the foundation, and it already exists. In a dramatic about-face, these organizations are no longer competing but collaborating…for the good of the industry.
And they need help. Now is the time for policy groups and their members to join…for the good of the industry…by creating a professionally managed organization to not only wrangle the programs we have into order but also develop new programs, such as ensuring the recommendations from the Youth in Aviation Task Force are brought to fruition.
However, there is a huge caveat to this funding. If it takes sponsorships away from programs that inspire kids, then we will have failed. Those programs are critically important because they are already doing the job. They just need to be organized and elevated to the public, who will then funnel into them because they are in their own communities.
The National Coalition for Aviation & Space Education is now consulting with these organizations and others to create a 35,000-foot-level website database that funnels parents, teachers, students, and guidance counselors to aviation/aerospace education resources within their own communities. It would also connect the dots between industry, educators, nonprofit aviation/aerospace STEM education groups, career and technical education, and local government workforce development officials. The website would also funnel the public directly to the career information pages already existing on the Washington policy groups’ websites.
Credit: Vuforia Aerospace
But, if you ask any aviation educator who is missing in the aviation/aerospace education and career pathway ecosystem, it is aviation, aerospace, and defense companies. Below you will see they aren’t really missing but they need organization, too. When asked about pipelines, companies like Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman point to colleges and poaching from each other. Meanwhile, on the Space Coast, Blue Origin, United Launch Alliance, and SpaceX have already hired graduates from the Eau Gallie High School aviation program.
Policy groups and their members could build the Early-Learning-to-Career pipeline and enable the great programs already out there to scale in a much more coherent manner than today. The organization would also launch a program to promote our careers to youngsters who are now being recruited by other industries. It would lock in a future workforce.
Aviation Days
Women in Aviation International is a perfect example of what our aviation/aerospace education army can do. Every year, it has a Girls in Aviation Day in September. It is a global event reaching more than 40,000 kids annually. The event is a fun introduction to all our careers, from air traffic control and piloting to maintenance and dispatch. It also has an app to retain the momentum the girls receive during GIAD and a best-in-class career guide.
Meanwhile, EAA has its Discovery Flight, AeroEducate, and Young Eagles programs, while AOPA and Choose Aerospace have their aviation STEM curricula.
GIAD is hosted by WAI’s local chapters. But what if we expanded it to include exhibits from local employers, career and technical education programs, government workforce officials, and CTE educators? These events also introduce them to their next steps, whether it is identifying the local school that offers aviation engineering, aerospace, or drone programs, or meeting future mentors who offer a Discovery Flight.
Credit: Unsplash Dose Media
Local community and four-year colleges, as well as government workforce officials, would discuss higher education and local training programs, which are often free.
WAI is just one organization, but if we included all the organizations cited above, we would have a complete aviation/aerospace education ecosystem that inspires youth from early learning, guides them throughout their education, and introduces them to their future employers. And, including their parents is ideal for those looking for new opportunities, second careers, or recovering from a layoff.
Going global
Now think of organizing all those entities into an aviation/aerospace education ecosystem at the global level. After we inspire them, they go home and search a single database to learn about our careers, find links to organizations that represent those careers, identify their local ecosystem, become familiar with local career and technical education offerings, and identify aviation/aerospace employers in their own communities. The database would include both national and local STEM education groups for coding and robotics, among others, as well as resources, and aviation/aerospace/STEM museums, and be searchable by postal code.
These organizations’ members already constitute the army to implement the recommendations from the Youth in Aviation Task Force. If we leveraged the army these groups already inspire among youth, those recommendations could be realized with appropriate support from industry. Most of these groups are working on their recommendations without even realizing it, but need additional resources and guidance on how to bring them to fruition.
The question is: Why are we relying on governments to address our critical workforce issues that are costing us an estimated hundreds of billions of dollars?
Industry Pivot
To do that, the aviation/aerospace industry must pivot away from relying on the government to help itself organize and promote the amazing aviation/aerospace education assets already in every corner of America.
Key Assets in Developing the Workforce
To their credit, many companies are investing heavily in education, such as RTX’s aviation STEM programming with the Boys & Girls Clubs of America. There’s also the American Rocketry Challenge. GE Aerospace Foundation, through its Lifting Future program, is investing $30m to develop 10,000 new skilled workers for advanced manufacturing and MRO by 2030. Boeing and Airbus are making heavy investments at the high school level and Textron has a K-12 program and a new training center. The AOPA Foundation and Choose Aerospace have their High School curricula, as does the Space Foundation. Duncan Aviation and West Star Aviation are developing their own pipelines, but all this fragmentation leaves one important task undone.
Promoting aviation and aerospace careers and inspiring kids with the bold, leading-edge technological initiatives happening today.
RTX Launches Early STEM Education to Prepare the Future Aviation/Aerospace Workforce
What all these groups could be doing today is becoming trusted counselors and mentors, guiding families toward our careers by using their events to create an Early-Learning-to-Career Pipeline that connects the dots among government and corporate workforce development, career and technical education officials, and families within their communities.
Much of this is already in play; it only needs organization, and that would be the role of the National Coalition for Aviation and Space Education with its deep bench of talent and years of funneling educational resources and events from membership organizations to educators. The excitement and energy are palpable when explaining all the initiatives it plans.
It all depends on whether aviation and aerospace leadership wants to continue to bump along or soar.
As a veteran aviation journalist, Kathryn Creedy has been employed by, consulted to, and written about the airline and aerospace industries for 40 years. She has been covering industry workforce issues for over 15 years. She is now the President of the National Coalition for Aviation & Space Education.
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