Symposium Sessions
Space Symposium Panelists: Education, Industry and Government Must Align to Grow Space Workforce
Written by: Lesley Conn
A tsunami of job opportunities is fast approaching the U.S. space sector but coordinated efforts and new approaches are needed to create and connect skilled workers with employers.
In two Thursday sessions at the 41st Space Symposium, educators, company executives and workforce officials detailed the current crisis of finding skilled workers. They also addressed what is working and what more must happen to sustain the coming demand for new space products and services.
Demand is being driven by the Trump administration prioritizing the need to secure space as a national priority and by emerging technologies that are making a sustained presence in space possible in ways it never has been before.
The president and the Pentagon have proposed the largest-ever military budget at $1.5 trillion. More than $71 billion is allocated to the Space Force, $40 billion of which would be for research and development of new space infrastructure.
Training and Retention Are Problems
Against that expected growth, multiple industry surveys, including those by Space Foundation and the Aerospace Industries Association, have found that companies are reporting months-long delays to fill vacant positions, are paying increasingly higher recruiting bonuses and several companies report that high-priority projects have been delayed by staffing shortages.
“The constraint is no longer capital and technology, it’s the skilled trades,” Mel Stricklan, executive director of Space Foundation’s Space Workforce for Tomorrow (SWFT), shared in a morning panel discussion. “I had one CEO tell me they could double their production tomorrow if they could get the workforce. That’s not a growth problem. That’s a workforce problem disguised in the clothing of a growth problem.”
Among the solutions offered to grow a sustaining pipeline:
- Students today must have hands-on learning that demonstrates how math and science is applied.
- Industry must partner with schools to provide training and examples of potential jobs.
- States, schools, industry and labor departments must coordinate and provide apprenticeships and other training that doesn’t require a four-year degree.
- Industry must be more willing to share hiring expectations with schools and government departments so more accurate pipeline programs can be built.
Kimberly Vitelli, an administrator with the Office of Workforce Investment at the U.S. Department of Labor, encouraged industry partners to take advantage of a new apprenticeship program that will pay companies up to $3,500 after a workforce study student reaches 90 days of work. It’s a tried-and-true approach that gets skilled workers into companies, she said.
Start by Learning to Fail
At the second Thursday discussion, Diane Lauer, chief academic officer for St. Vrain Valley School District in Longmont, CO, and Laurie Leshin, a former JPL director who is professor of Space Futures, Arizona State University, spoke to the need to make students lifelong learners. At St. Vrain, students apply their drone, GIS and robotics skills by working with and getting paid by area businesses to solve real-world problems.
“I used to think it was my job to teach and when the kids took the test and did well, I thought my job was done,” Lauer said. “Now, I want to see my kids apply their skills….. Its gotta be about more than textbooks or some goal far off down the road. If they know where to get that information, they are going to be resilient and they are going to be lifelong learners.”
Jason Kim, CEO of Firefly Aerospace, said he and Lauer also have spoken about teaching students the importance of failing.
“It’s not if you fail, it’s when you fail and how do you respond to that?” Kim said. “Build resilience into kids and the workforce. You’ve got to tell them to get your chin up and do it better next time.”
“And then you can do things like go to the Moon.”
“What we say in workforce is you can’t be what you can’t see, ” said Kimberly Vitelli, an administrator with the Office of Workforce Investment at the U.S. Department of Labor, as she connected that to the Artemis II mission: “ What a great opportunity to show people what they can be.”
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