Former Boeing exec: Want a strong Washington aerospace industry? Get more girls into STEM
Scott Carson knows the aerospace industry. He spent more than 30 years at Boeing Co. – three of them as the CEO and president of the company's Commercial Airplanes division.
He also knows education. Carson is on the Board of Regents at Washington State University and is the namesake of the school's Carson College of Business.
When I asked Carson how to keep the aerospace industry competitive, his answer was surprisingly straightforward: Get kids, particularly girls, excited about and engaged in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math).
“Invest in more STEM," Carson said in a recent interview. "I’m a big proponent of STEM education. It’s a big challenge and it’s both a general challenge but it’s also a gender-specific challenge."
According to the most recent data available, 30 percent of all employed people worked in the aerospace industry in Washington state. Gross revenue for the hundreds of aerospace businesses in the state – including Boeing (NYSE: BA) – was nearly $60 billion in 2014.
Of the 93,400 people employed in the aerospace cluster, Boeing (NYSE: BA) employs 80,000.
But Washington state has more jobs available in STEM fields than workers to fill them, Carson said.
Basically, the pipeline from elementary, middle and high school to the aerospace industry needs to be beefed up. That's true for the software industry as well.
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