CLARKSBURG, W.Va. — Pierpont Senior Aviation Professor and Robert C. Byrd Aerospace Educator Center Director Tom Stose is thrilled to see a new class of aerospace graduates that have origins in the coal mines.
“We all reached out to the displaced coal miners and are helping seven displaced coal miners and one displaced oil and gas worker and a young lady who was displaced from her career field to start a new career in aviation,” Stose said on Wednesday’s edition of “The Mike Queen Show” on the AJR News Network.
Stose said the Aerospace Education Center, which trains students in flight technology and maintenance technology, has had a lot of success in placing it’s graduates into entry-level jobs to launch their careers.
“This is the sixth class that we’re graduating, and in the previous five classes, two of the companies–H2Arrow and Bombardier–have come over and offered these graduates, each one of them, a position with their company before they even graduate,” Stose said.
Stose said that companies like H2Arrow and Bombardier both approached him with interest in expanding the current programs.
“I’ve been here for 20 years and the graduates out of this Aerospace Center are still working at the plants around the airport that I trained 20 years ago,” he said. “We like to tell everyone that we’re training you for a career, not just a job.”
Coal production has taken a nosedive over the past eight years–with many of the industry’s supporters believing it’s unlikely that production will ever return to 2008 levels. That loss of production has also meant a loss in jobs, but Stose believes programs like these are vital for retraining laid off miners.
“The aerospace industry is going to benefit greatly from the addition of these coal miners coming into the aerospace field because these guys and gal hit the ground running and they’ve been working non-stop for the last eight weeks,” he said.