Pierpont uses aviation career day to put self on map

Apr. 12—BRIDGEPORT — According to an annual report Boeing released, the company expects a shortage of 160,000 aviation technicians over the next 20 years.

However, challenges in one area can also mean opportunity from a different perspective, according to West Virginia educators.

"In the next 20 years, people like myself will be retiring," Brad Gilbert, director of aviation technology at Pierpont Community and Technical College, said. "The Baby Boomer generation is retiring. Airline travel has grown by leaps and bounds so you need technicians to support that industry."

In other words, it's open season for job hunters.

Pierpont held an aviation career fair Thursday at the Robert C. Byrd National Aerospace Education Center in Bridgeport, close to the North Central West Virginia Airport. Students had a chance to interact with representatives at major aerospace companies, such as Mitsubishi and Boeing subsidiary Aurora Flight Sciences.

As West Virginia transitions to high-tech industries, Gilbert said, Pierpont wants to supply employees to aviation companies seeking to move to the state. Although what major players exist in the field are part of classroom discussion, it has a different impact entirely on a student's experience to see for themselves what opportunities a company offers.

A symbiotic relationship exists between the school and the industry. Providing students exposure to these companies is important, but without announcing itself to players in the aviation space, companies might not know a school like Pierpont exists. Gilbert said holding a career fair was akin to raising a flag and staking out a spot in the aviation scene.

"This lets them know we exist and we have very good students," Gilbert said. "It puts us on the map. We have career employees trained in skill sets that are adaptable to many areas."

Nate Keener and Chelsie Wilson walked from table to table, talking to company representatives and collecting information for their prospective future careers. Both are first-year students at Pierpont. Wilson was unsure where she wanted to go in her career, but felt it was nice to have the opportunity to see what was out there. Keener, who has previous experience with the oil and gas industry, started his career transition to aviation maintenance after knowing people in the field. The type of work drew his interest.

"To think you could see something has grown in such a short amount of time, almost like with computers and how you see them evolve," Keener said. "You're actually helping with that and you get to see it firsthand, especially with composites and sheet metal and stuff. It's really neat."

Wilson added there was a certain romance to the field, it is aviation after all.

"It's nice to know you're working on something that is carrying other people in the sky," she said. "So, it's nice to have that achievement."

Aviation wasn't the only career field present at the career fair. Chris Bates and Brandi Hobbs from NAES Corporation talked to students who approached their table about how the skills they acquired for aviation maintenance can transfer to other industrial sectors. NAES Corporation runs the Long Ridge Hannibal Power Plant in Hannibal, Ohio. It's a brand new, state of art facility that can also incorporate hydrogen into the fuel mix it burns to generate fuel. The plant was completed in 2021.

Bates is a plant manager for the company. He said much of the stuff done at Long Ridge requires intricate hand work, employees regularly deal with pressure differentiation and tube work. All those skills transfer from aeronautics.

Coming to the Pierpont career fair was important to Bates and Hobbs because it allows them to plant a seed within current students, one they can potentially harvest once impending graduates start looking for placements out in the real world.

Hobbs is a business manager for the company. She was taken by the quality of the students at Pierpont.

"I've been to different job fairs before where the main thing was, 'Let's go to their table and see what all we can grab and put in our bags,'" she said. "Honestly, we've not replenished anything since we got here. The kids were definitely very motivated, very focused and had a lot of good questions. They're taking this seriously."

Students like Keener and Wilson are excited for their futures. The skills they train at Pierpont go wider than the aviation industry, clearing the way to a field of opportunity as open as the sky.

"It's definitely growing," Keener said. "There's so many outlets for it. Not just planes, you have energy, stuff with hydraulics, with amusement parks and stuff. There's just such a huge field for anything to go into."

Reach Esteban at efernandez@timeswv.com