Wichita Has A Well-Funded Retraining Program -- But Few Students

Right after the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington on 9/11, the one US city with more aerospace workers per square mile than just about any other saw the future. Wichita, KS, and surrounding Sedgewick County rushed into place a worker-retraining program for aerospace workers who were to be laid off in the wake of those attacks. Both the city and the county dumped $200,000 into the program. To date only ten students have obtained their objective in becoming licensed Airframe and Powerplant mechanics.

But, not to be discouraged, Wichita and Sedgewick County have teamed up with Wichita's school district and the state to form the Kansas Technical Training Initiative -- KTTI. The focus has changed. Now, instead of finding ways to train out-of-work aerospace workers, the idea is to train people to get INTO -- or back into -- the aerospace business.

Figure it this way, said Peter Gustaf, the new organization's executive director (below, right): "The average age of the aircraft worker is in the mid to upper 40's, so we're looking at 10% to 15% of those people retiring in the next three or four years so you're looking at a serious problem." Gustaf was quoted by Wichita's KSN-TV.

Now, KTTI is working with Cowley County Community College to form the Aviation Tech Center. Its goal: quickly train up A&Ps and help them find work.

"Initially it took up a lot of time. Obviously setting up a program is extremely difficult and a lot of work. We had to have a lot of help to do it. The city and the county and the aircraft companies did the yeoman work setting this up," Gustaf told KSN.

It is, in the world of tuition assistance, a pretty sweet deal. Students get up to $2,000 in education funding. But while the program was aimed at attracting 100 students, only 21 signed up.

"We were hoping, because this is the air capital of the world, there would be 100 of them that would be eligible. But because of the requirements, out of the hundreds that applied, we could only find a little over 20 that were eligible," Gustaf said. Another 43 students eventually signed up -- all from Cessna.

As for the low licensure rate, Gustaf is philosophical. "I'm very happy with this program," he told KSN. "We got 75% of our people working and probably more."

FMI: www.workforcenetworkkansas.org