Recent decisions to scale back affirmative action and disadvantaged business programs in infrastructure are already starting to tilt the playing field for small businesses in aviation and transportation. For decades, these programs through the U.S. Department of Transportation have opened doors for highly-competent women-, minority- and veteran-owned firms. Now, as the effects of those rollbacks begin to surface, we’re left with a bigger, harrier challenge: how do we ensure a strong, diverse pipeline of talent at a time when demand for projects and expertise has never been higher?
While there’s plenty of room for discussion on the politics of these programs, I’d like to focus instead on a broader, and perhaps more urgent, message: reducing competition in infrastructure sends shivers up my spine because we are living in an all-hands-on-deck moment in this industry.
We’re in uncharted airspace right now. In the comeback from the COVID-19 pandemic, we were all unsure of what the rebound would look like for the economy and for aviation. The actual course has surpassed nearly all projections. Airports are booming, airlines are thriving and travel demand has reached new statistical highs. Airlines continue to add new routes, and passengers continue to book tickets. Thus, airports have continued to broaden their footprints and their services. The “slowdown” that was projected has yet to materialize, yet still there continues to be a shortage of qualified, knowledgeable talent in something as niche as aviation. As a result, almost every company (whether you’re admitting it to yourself or not) sees more work coming in the door than they can keep up with.
The horizon shows us multiple possible scenarios, but the majority indicate that air travel is here to stay. Even business travel has rebounded more than expected. Perhaps the value of two people meeting face-to-face cannot be replaced by Zoom, after all? We see no slowdown in projects, no slowdown in funding and no slowdown in demand.
To tackle this massive undertaking of building up the nation’s infrastructure, we need every qualified person we can get. We need people who love their engineering or consulting jobs in other industries to lend their know-how to airports and infrastructure. We need people who have never considered a career in aviation to join our ranks. We need students whose schools don’t offer aviation curriculum to bring their curiosity and energy into the industry. We need anyone who can be taught how to do our work (and do it exceptionally) designing terminals, driving bag carts, flying planes, paving runways and running airports!
Engineers build our planet. Clean water, moon rockets, Pac-Man, fidget spinners, NFL stadiums, Frank Sinatra records – everything around us was designed and built by someone. Increasingly, these things are engineered by a team of people. In days gone by, an aircraft could be built by two chaps from Ohio in their bike shop. Today, aircraft design, prototyping, testing, programming, manufacturing and certification takes a team of thousands, with each person performing a specific skill they have been trained for. As the world gets more complex, our projects get more complex, and we need more people, with more ideas and more solutions coming to the table to get things done.
Whether these programs in question are the right programs to solve this problem is indeed up for debate. The unspoken reality of that challenge, of course, is that encouraging, or even requiring, fair play does not diminish the success of those who would otherwise handily win. Golf doesn’t award handicaps to new golfers to destroy the chances of pro golfers. It does so to make the field more competitive, so the most competent players advance. These programs work in the same way.
So, what kinds of programs or efforts can we find – that are fair and effective – to help bring the best talent to our field as we tackle complex projects? What can we do to draw more people into this line of work, one that’s rewarding not just in the money to be made, but in the permanent impact we make on humankind?
Whether or not these specific programs stick around, we need initiatives to attract more people into the field of technical problem-solving. We need more innovation. We need more teammates, not just in aviation, but in all of transportation and infrastructure. We need more ways to help more people get a seat at the table, so they can get to work.
