AMT_June-July_2021 - 39

A R S A INS IG H T
Go When They Are
" We've got to go where they are. "
It's a common statement by my fellow members of the FAA-lead Youth Access
to American Jobs in Aviation Task Force. " They " are the youth on whom the
entire aviation industry is focused - a repository of talent and potential that
must be tapped.
It's " where they are " that's the challenge. The
By Brett Levanto
Brett Levanto is
vice president of
operations of Obadal,
Filler, MacLeod &
Klein, P.L.C. managing
firm and client
communications
in conjunction with
regulatory and
legislative policy
initiatives. He
provides strategic
and logistical support
for the Aeronautical
Repair Station
Association.
expression commonly gets reduced to social media:
Go where they are and find some viral content what
will make aerospace careers attractive. I've made a
hobby of seeking out young, interesting aviation voices
on various platforms. One discovery resulted in FAA
Administrator Steve Dickson recording a video with
Stevie Triesenberg, private pilot and creative force
behind " planegirl. " Stevie's videos documenting preflight
inspections and landing checklists - and sporting
fashionable attire - have attracted more than one
million followers on the short form video site TikTok.
Dickson's interview with her has garnered a small fraction
of that attention on the FAA's YouTube channel.
Maintenance is well-represented in the form of
Elena Gonzalez, an AMT based in Miami building
out an online presence to mentor and guide others via
fixflytravel.com. My ARSA teammates and I exulted
in Elena's descriptions of paperwork and procedures in
completing operational checks - compliance can be
cool, after all. @FixFlyTravel has a ways to go to catch
up to Stevie in follower count...maybe you can help.
I enjoy a good excuse to scroll my phone in the name
of work research. Social media provides an easy out
for those of us looking to find and attract young talent.
It's not the whole story though. A viral Instagram
post or TikTok video can turn heads. Inspiring and
instructive content from capable creators produces
immediate impact. However, those messages last only
as long as the post stays at the top of anyone's feed.
Our success demands we explore an important
facet of " where " the audience is by considering " when "
they are: What ages matter in the development of
budding aviators?
The usual answer is the younger the better. Part of
our task force's work has been to unmask that concept.
To provide some data, we asked a group of aviation
students in various programs at what age they began
their interest in aviation. The results were surprising
in two ways.
First, we learned to stop referring to those pursuing
aviation careers as " youth " - the answers stretched
all the way up to 50 years old. Looking past that, we
saw there were two different ages that stood out in
terms of " hooking " future aviation professionals: 10
and 18.
This implied the presence of different " tracks "
towards aviation interest. On the younger end, early
engagement and youthful energy persist through
schooling and lead to ongoing activity. On the older
side, soon-to-be professionals sort through options
for future employment and make choices that likely
align with their general interests; these students may
not have craned their necks to catch airshow demonstrations
as children, they applied broader interest
in technology or skill-based work to a specific career
field. Some even had these decisions " made for them "
after military enlistment lead to an aviation specialty;
as an industry we must improve our support for veteran
transitions...a subject for its own analysis.
Engagement should start young, sure, but how that
introduction takes place depends on what students
are ready for. Here's a breakdown discussed during
the task force's last public meeting:
Pre-school & Kindergarten: Have fun and build
interest.
Elementary School: Engage parents and provide
brief, but frequent exposure to students.
Middle School: Provide hands on activities to students
in their formative years first imagining future
" grown up " life and work.
High School: Drive career goals through regular
touchpoints that " demystify " aviation careers.
As you can imagine, the " how " changes as those
students mature. I can't imagine too many kindergartners
are on social media, at least independent
of grown up oversight. Elementary school students
might be exploring new media, but certainly not in
a way that Stevie or Elena will speak to them. Older
students - certainly by high school and approaching
adulthood - finally grow into the kind of free and
exploratory technology use we imagine exploiting.
So, " going where they are " can't really be done until
we " go when they are. "
www.AviationPros.com 39
http://www.fixflytravel.com http://www.AviationPros.com
AMT_June-July_2021

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