Council teaming with Aviation Week on aerospace workforce study
The South Carolina Council on Competitiveness and the industry cluster SC Aerospace are teaming with Penton’s Aviation Week Network to conduct the state’s first aerospace and defense manufacturing workforce study. The study will be conducted in collaboration with North Carolina, Georgia, Alabama and Florida to develop the Southeast region’s first deep-dive report on the state of the aerospace and defense manufacturing industrial base.
“The information developed from this study will allow us to work with our state partners to develop policy recommendations for the southeast region,” said Ann Marie Stieritz, president and CEO of the South Carolina Council on Competitiveness. “More importantly, we will receive data for our state that will inform our next steps in preparing the workforce of the future and for extending the industrial base to meet the full needs of the aerospace industry.”
Aviation Week approached the five states about participation after its 2015 national study found the highest percentage job growth for the industry in the Southeast region.
“We have conducted our annual industry study since 1997,” said Greg Hamilton, Aviation Week Network president. “In that time, the data has led to aggressive actions throughout the industry to build engineering education resources throughout the country, to allow the industry to better compete with high tech employers for the best and brightest, and to encourage young people to pursue careers in this industry..”
The South Carolina Aeronautics Commission, the South Carolina Technical College System and the University of South Carolina are funding the execution of the study in South Carolina. The findings will be released at the state’s Aerospace Industry Conference and Expo on August 24, 2016 in Columbia.
“We have found over the years that most organizations have one of two reactions to data – they either admire it or they aggressively put it to work to benefit companies and ultimately employees,” says Carole Rickard Hedden, editorial director for Aviation Week Executive Intelligence.
ABOUT SOUTH CAROLINA COUNCIL ON COMPETITIVENESS AND SC AEROSPACE
The SC Council on Competitiveness is a business-led, non-profit organization advancing the long-term economic competitiveness of our state, industries and citizens. The SC Aerospace industry cluster is a collaborative effort to advance and market South Carolina’s aerospace industry cluster on the global stage. For more information, visit www.sccompetes.org, and follow us on Twitter @sccompetes.
ABOUT PENTON’S AVIATION WEEK NETWORK
Penton’s Aviation Week Network is the largest multimedia information and services provider for the global aviation, aerospace and defense industries that has a database of 1.2 million professionals around the world. For more information, visit http://www.penton.com or follow us on Twitter @PentonNow.