Aircraft Maintenance Technology November 2019 - 52

ARSA INSIGHT

By Brett Levanto

DO YOUR HOMEWORK

Brett Levanto is
vice president
operation for
the Aeronautical
Repair Station
Association
(ARSA). He
graduated from
the George
Washington
University in
2004 and earned
a Master of
Public Policy
from the College
of William
and Mary in
2009. For more
information visit
www.arsa.org.

HIS PAST JULY, I ISSUED A "HOMEWORK
assignment" to ARSA members (and anyone
else willing to accept the challenge): Go teach
at a local school.
I wasn't advocating a career change - quite the opposite. It's time for the maintenance community to open its
doors and show off the good work and great opportunity
behind them. For the sake of good corporate citizenship
and long-term workforce development, there are plenty
of reasons for aviation businesses to become familiar
to the students and families in their local communities.
There are many ways to build these relationships. It
can mean supporting existing activities through sponsorship or volunteerism, participating in career days
or visits and hosting field trips or other kinds of open
houses for local students. Use whatever means you can
find to let students get to know you and even build interest in your work, so they can do it someday.
This particular spin - the "teaching" challenge - came
with the assistance of the FAA's STEM Aviation and Space
Education (AVSED) Outreach Program. AVSED's mission
was born in 1935, when the Department of Commerce
Bureau of Air Commerce began working with the National
Education Association. The Outreach Program itself was
created in 1961 - a pretty inspiring time to for aspiring aerospace professionals - and its continued work
depends on active support from industry.
The AVSED website (www.faa.gov/education) has
information about the program's various resources,
activities and references. It's worth reviewing and passing along to colleagues and industry contacts, but only
if that review and related circulation results in action.
So, to return to the challenge at hand, let's prepare you
for your classroom debut.
All it takes is a willingness to invest the time and
energy to contact and visit, or arrange to host, local
students, risk the potential frustration of coordinating
a group of young children and commit to being available
to help them continue their aviation learning. I suggest
starting with lower elementary - kindergartners provide
a friendly, if distractible audience that you can visit and
make an impact on for years to come - and following
a few basic steps:
1. Review the AVSED resources for educators (www.
faa.gov/education/educators) and students (www.
faa.gov/education/students).
2. If you don't already know any, find nearby schools.
The National Center for Education Statistics has an

52 NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2019

online system for searching public school districts:
nces.ed.gov/ccd/districtsearch.
3. Pick a school or schools and call the administration(s),
explaining your goals and asking for the right point
of contact.
4. Determine their level of interest and consider your
own time and capability. You can offer to have your
own team members visit for a "special activity"
session for certain classes or simply help connect
teachers with AVSED resources.
5. Do it. If your own team is going to "teach." Just pick
an activity - a good place to start is www.faa.gov/
education/students/activities - print out whatever
instructions or activity sheets you need, bring along
any additional tools, or props from work you can
show off, and go walk through it with the kids. Of
course, nobody knows your work better than you,
so feel free to invent your own, better teaching tools.
Just be sure to share them.
6. Contact local media, highlight the experience
through your own communication channels or use
any other way you can to celebrate the activity.
7. Follow up. Especially if you've just shared resources
with the school, but even if you went there personally. Don't make your engagement a one-time activity. I also recommend sharing your gratitude with
any of your own team members that took part.
8. Tell ARSA about it.
Getting into a classroom is a great way to put a face on
your work and begin the long effort of building a generation
of technical-skill minded personnel. It can also be the starting point for much longer and more fulfilling relationships.
If you want to pursue more in-depth opportunities, AVSED
has been collaborating with the Flight Standards Service to
provide guidelines and assistance for job shadowing and
apprenticeships. with National Apprenticeship Week happening in November each year, the late fall and early winter
is a great time to think about developing such opportunities.
This is a long game: facing a recruitment crisis and the
looming retirement of many experienced technicians,
having patience to build relationships and connections
that may not pay off for a decade or more can be challenging. It has to be done, though, because we got into this
mess by letting too many children grow up without personal experience in aviation and other technical careers.
If you have any questions about school outreach in
specific or career development efforts in general, send
me an email.

AIRCRAFT MAINTENANCE TECHNOLOGY

http://nces.ed.gov/ccd/districtsearch http://www.faa.gov/education/students/activities http://www.faa.gov/education http://www.faa.gov/education/educators http://www.faa.gov/education/students http://www.arsa.org

Aircraft Maintenance Technology November 2019

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