Non-traditional paths to recruit technicians

Traditional methods for recruiting and retaining aircraft maintenance technicians aren’t meeting the demand to replace an aging workforce and keep up with more airplanes in service. The recent National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) Maintenance Conference highlighted the need for more aircraft maintainers in the business jet sector, and what the NBAA is doing to help.

The conference’s first session was devoted to aircraft maintenance technician scholarship awards. Fifteen donors/sponsors from academia and industry offered 27 scholarships toward classes providing advanced training in aircraft maintenance. Among the award winners for 2023 is Sarah Fairchild, recipient of a Collins Aerospace scholarship.

Fairchild graduated from Embry- Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU) last December, hiring into an advanced maintenance technician’s job at a premier business jet manufacturer. Her pathway to that position isn’t typical and may be instructive to companies trying to broaden recruiting efforts.

Fairchild was drawn into the industry after attending an aviation discovery day at a small airport where she got her first airplane ride. “I took my first flight and loved it; I wanted to be a pilot,” she recalls. Fairchild eventually got her private pilot’s license but didn’t want to fly as a commercial pilot or be an instructor. What else could she do in aviation?

The turning point came in high school, after taking elective classes in pottery and woodworking. She liked the process of “We want to do this, make this happen, how do we do that?” She found it appealing that if you make a mistake, you learn how to fix it and move forward.

She reasoned, “I like doing pottery. I like doing woodwork, working with my hands. I guess somebody has to fix the planes, right? Then I discovered aviation maintenance.”

Fast-forward a few years: Fairchild serves in the Army National Guard, maintaining Chinook helicopters, then enrolls at ERAU. She liked working on aircraft, but it wasn’t until she attended a class where Jim Huntoon, a member of the NBAA Maintenance Committee, spoke about the opportunities in business aviation and the scholarships available.

Fairchild says business aviation has a family feel and likes its performance-based promotion system. “If you put in the hard work and if you’re good at your job, you’ll go places in this industry,” she says.

Nicole Colin earned a scholarship sponsored by the University of Southern California and is attending school at Iowa Western Community College, in Council Bluffs. Colin fell in love with aviation while working at an airport, ground handling for commercial airlines.

One day, she asked a local mechanic, “How’d you get this job?” When she learned it took only two years of schooling, she says, “I could see myself doing this. Three weeks later, I moved across the state and was sitting in class. It was the best decision I ever made.” – Eric