"Hire A Hero" Program Extends To Kansas

Wichita, KS is home to a resurgent aerospace industry... to the point that qualified workers to fill those jobs are difficult to come by, especially as older workers retire. That is one reason companies such as Cessna, Boeing, and Raytheon have launched a pilot program focused on recruiting veterans and returning military personnel to fill those jobs.

The Associated Press reports The Armed Forces Support Foundation's Hire a Hero Program will use $10 million in federal funds to help veterans find jobs, after their hitches in the armed forces are up. The program aims to train, certify, and place workers in jobs with participating companies.

"We have a great jewel here in the businesses and the people that we have, but we also have a crisis on our hands and we are going to have to recruit and train replacements plus people to grow," said Spirit AeroSystems CEO Jeff Turner.

Turner adds that in 2007 alone, as many as 6,000 positions will need to be filled. The average age of aerospace workers in Wichita is 48, he said, with 40 percent of the workforce expected to retire within five years.

Most of those positions come from general aviation manufacturers. Kansas companies build over half of all GA planes in the nation, Turner said, and about 3,250 aviation-related companies call the Sunflower State home.

Union leaders also support the initiative to draw more ex-military personnel into the fold.

"We believe that this program that we are launching ... is truly the answer to many of the problems we seek to resolve," said International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers president Tom Buffenbarger.

Dan Caulfield, president of the private recruiting consultancy firm HQ Group, says 225,000 military personnel leave active duty each year, and enter the job market. Unemployment among them is twice as high as the general population.

"They are going to be trainable, drug-free and eager to take the jobs you are offering," Caulfield said.

"You have told the whole country military service has value," added Dan's father, retired Maj. Gen. Matthew Caulfield.

FMI: http://armedforcessupportfoundation.org/