In honor of National Aviation Day, the St. Louis Regional Aerospace and Aviation Task Force launched its Aerospace and Aviation Careers Roadmaps to a group of enthused Lindbergh students and staff.
The new program highlights pathways to high-paying careers — from engineering to sheet metal work to air traffic control — in the ever-growing sector of aviation. Aviation is particularly big in St. Louis due to industry giants like Boeing being located here; regional employment in the aerospace manufacturing sector has grown by more than 1,800 jobs, or 11.9% in the last 10 years, 10 times faster than the national average.
“We have almost 50 aerospace companies operating in the St. Louis area, and based on all of that, we’re going to have close to $5 million of investment scheduled over the next five to ten years that’s going to generate over 1,000 jobs,” Mary Lamie, Executive Vice President of Multi Modal Enterprises, said. “We need to continue to support the jobs that we have in place now, but more importantly, we need to introduce those great jobs to high school students.”
Despite the general assumption that most aerospace and aviation careers are purely science-based, it was emphasized multiple times throughout the presentation that all types of people can thrive in the industry.
“We have, for a long time, done a really good job of preparing kids for college, but have lately been trying to be more focused on offering chances to join specific career pathways and maybe even avoid going to college if it’s appropriate, or going into the industry and then going to college after you’ve started doing the industry,” Lindbergh High School principal Eric Cochran said. “We’re just trying to be more flexible for the student body.”
For more information on educational and training programs, as well as job openings in the bi-state area, visit AeroSTL.org/Jobs.
