TINKER AIR FORCE BASE, Okla. --
The announcement last fall that the Oklahoma City Air
Logistics Complex planned to hire 1,000 people in 100 days made headlines
across Oklahoma and beyond.
To meet the ambitious goal, the OC-ALC revived a hiring
program it hadn’t used in many years:
the Helper-Trainee program.
Hiring hundreds of entry-level helper trainees and
prospective maintainers at the aircraft maintenance, repair and overhaul
facility is one thing. Training them is another.
To tackle the challenge, OC-ALC Commander Brig. Gen. Mark
Johnson and the complex’s leadership team turned to a longtime partner for
help: the Oklahoma Department of Career and Technology Education, also known as
CareerTech.
After multiple meetings to determine what training the
maintenance complex needed for its Helpers, CareerTech quickly created a
custom-tailored curriculum for the more than 9,000-employee OC-ALC.
Instructors at five central Oklahoma tech centers were
asked to get the employees/students up to speed in five- to seven-week classes
under the program.
“We took people who didn’t know what a rudder on an
aircraft was,” said Eddie Compton, CareerTech’s aerospace/defense industry
liaison. “What we did is make sure they had enough knowledge and they
understood the aircraft enough that they could go in the workplace, be
productive and learn the job.”
The results have been outstanding, General Johnson said.
“Our ongoing hiring surge is crucial to sustaining the
influx of maintainers that our current and future workload requires,” the
general said. “In order to accomplish it, we have a methodical strategy in
place and CareerTech is a central piece of that plan to meet our hiring goals.
We couldn’t ask for a better partner.”
Through a formal Education and Training Partnership with
CareerTech, OC-ALC leaders can tell the education system their hiring needs and
CareerTech builds tailored programs to meet them.
The complex began hiring from and working with CareerTech’s
18-month-long airframe and power plant certification program in 2002. A sheet
metal technician track was added in 2010, avionics and electronics in 2013 and
airframe electrician last year. A general aviation curriculum will be starting
soon, Mr. Compton said.
In the fiscal year that ended in June, CareerTech
graduated 172 technicians in the airframe and powerplant specialty, 203 in
aircraft structures, 10 in avionics and approximately 300 Aircraft Helpers, Mr.
Compton said. Another 180 Helpers will be starting classes this fall.
“We have classes graduating every two to four months,” Mr.
Compton said. “We continue to provide that pipeline and we are continuing to
build to be stronger and bigger.”
The OC-ALC hires students as interns, and recent graduates
for full-time jobs, using the Office of Personnel Management’s Pathways program
through the USAJOBS.gov website. The CareerTech pipeline to the OC-ALC begins
at the Gordon Cooper, Mid-Del, Canadian Valley, Metro and Francis Tuttle
technology centers.
Forty-year-old Charles Banks Jr., the father of a
17-year-old son and 11-year-old daughter, became a full-time aircraft mechanic
through the Pathways program and training at Gordon Cooper Technology Center.
“I think it’s great,” Mr. Banks said of Pathways. “It
allows you to come in and learn the system and how things work. Sometimes when
you just get put in a situation you can get overwhelmed, but this was a smooth
transition.”
Brandon Bussell, workforce development chief for the
complex, said the Pathways and Helper programs are crucial to meeting the
OC-ALC’s hiring needs.
“We lose about 60 people a month through attrition,” Mr.
Bussell said, “so the first 60 people we hire each month don’t even gain us a
body. So, because of the number of people we need to bring on, we decided to
reinstitute the Helper program short-term and it’s really helped because we’ve
brought on more than 300 people.”
Brittany Williams, one of the program managers for the
Helper program, said “for such a new program, it’s been really smooth. We’ve
gotten a lot of feedback from Helpers who’ve said this is a really great thing
that you guys are doing. They’re very happy with it.”