EKAD Job Opportunities for Students

Teachers briefed on EKAD job opportunities for student’s tour Mojave Airport/Spaceport businesses "You are the shepherds of tomorrow's workforce."- Stuart Witt

Mojave Desert News - 03/13/2009

By Bill Deaver

MOJAVE — "We have jobs here for all of your students," East Kern Airport District General Manager Stu Witt told 15 area teachers during a tour of the Mojave Airport/Spaceport last Thursday. The tour, organized by the Edwards Community Alliance (ECA) and the East Kern Educational Resource Network (EKERN), was organized to acquaint teachers with the career opportunities available to youngsters in the region, and to help them obtain the academic preparation to achieve their career goals. Teachers from high schools in Boron, California City, Edwards, Mojave, Ridgecrest, and Rosamond, plus the Kern County Supt. of Schools Office, attended the four-hour tour of four businesses at the nation's first commercial spaceport.

Jobs available

In remarks welcoming the teachers to the airport, Witt said the wide variety of aerospace and other businesses at the airport and its industrial park offer jobs at all levels. "Everyone is important," Witt said, noting that the EKAD custodian "is fluent in three languages and helps me as an interpreter." In addition to several firms designing, building, and testing a new generation of spaceships, Witt said the airport hosts businesses that maintain and modify airplanes, manufacture composite products for aerospace and the area's wind energy industry, maintain railroad equipment, and distribute packages. "We have something for everyone," Witt said. Aerospace pioneer Burt Rutan noted that many of his firm's employees - including one of the company's vice-presidents - are Mojave High School graduates. "A lot of our best employees come from Mojave High." Fiberset, Inc., CEO Marie Walker is another MHS grad who also serves on the EKAD board of directors. And Nadia Roberts of the National Test Pilot School said the school's librarian is an MHS grad, and that another grad is currently working at the school while taking the test pilot course.

Master's degrees at NTPS

Roberts noted that NTPS students can earn Masters degrees at the school, the only private test pilot and flight test engineer school in the world as a QF-4 roared into the sky from the school's neighbor, BAE Flight Systems. "We're looking for a janitor right now," Roberts told the teachers, adding that she has done her share of cleaning-up at the company's facilities. Earlier, Witt noted that janitor jobs can lead to other positions at airport businesses. He also said that the airport's security staff "does much more than drive around - they operate a surveillance system more sophisticated than the one at LAX!" The district manager also noted that NTPS "began with two people and one plane - they now have 40 aircraft!" A big new building built for their related company, Flight Research Inc., will open soon. Another MHS grad, a scientist at the Jet Propulsion Lab, is a principal in one of the airport's newest rocket firms "The opportunity is here," Witt told the teachers, adding that "the next lunar lander is being developed here!" One of the big differences between government space programs and those at Mojave is that the average age of engineers at NASA is between 47 to 56. "When you visit the businesses here, look at the faces of the people working here!"an allusion to their relative youth.

Improving educational opportunities

Witt said the effort to brief the teachers is part of a larger effort to improve educational and job opportunities in east Kern. Those efforts include attracting a new state university, the "K-16 Bridge Program" at Mojave and Tehachapi schools in cooperation with Cerro Coso College to help students begin to plan their education goals in fourth grade, and expansion of economic development activities to attract and retain businesses. "We don't want to continue to export our kids," Witt said, noting that his three sons live and work outside the region. "You are the shepherds of tomorrow's workforce," Witt told the 15 teachers.

Four companies visited

During their tour, the teachers visited XCOR Aerospace, Scaled Composites, Masten Aerospace, and NTPS. At two of the firms the teachers visited, XCOR and Masten, company representatives said most of their staff was "out testing rocket engines today." Witt noted that since the beginning of the 21st Century, XCOR "has flown more rocket-powered flights than any company in the world - and they've all been flown here!" While other states talk about building spaceports, "we're where the action is," Witt said. At Scaled, Burt Rutan said his firm has "flown and tested more new aircraft than any other company. We have built and flown 43 manned research aircraft sine 1974," when he came to Mojave.\ Scaled Vice-President for operations Jason Kelly said the company "looks for people who have worked with their hands, people who like to be creative." Teamwork is emphasized at Scaled, Kelly said, noting that employees "work until the job gets done," and everyone pitches in. For example, the jeans-clad Kelly said that, even though he's a company vice-president, if he sees something being unloaded from a truck, "I stop and help." "You have a voice" if you work at Scaled, Kelly said. "If you see something that doesn't look right, speak up!"

Growth coming Scaled currently has 310 employees spread over the airport, and "growth is coming. We see exciting prospects here - we expect to keep growing." Dave Masten said that he has "always wanted to be an astronaut," and after a stint in the software business, decided to start his own business developing rocket engines.. "My goal is to develop a reusable suborbital launch vehicle," that can be relaunched without a long refurbishment period. Masten said the most important trait he seeks in employees is "the ability to think critically. We look for people with lost of practical skills. The need to be able to use their hands."

Teachers respond

At a lunch in the Voyager Restaurant following the briefing, the teachers expressed their impressions of the tour. John Cosner of Burroughs High School in Ridgecrest said he really enjoyed the opportunity to speak to "the guys doing the work" at some of the companies. Brian Puckett of the county Education Office said the tour enables him to "pass on to students the opportunities available here." Mojave High teacher Carrie Johnson told Witt "I really enjoyed seeing some of the businesses next door to my work place." Quarterly briefings for area teachers are planned by EKERN and ECA, and the next one will be at the Air Force Flight Test Center at Edwards Air Force Base. Funding from the Edwards Community Alliance pays schools for substitutes for teachers taking the tours.