Community Learning Center, Inc. and its Aerospace Industry Training Program

Program Synopsis

The Community Learning Center, Inc (CLC) was founded by the Tarrant County Central Labor Council as a workforce development and job placement organization to assist area workers who are unemployed, underemployed, or in need of career advancement opportunities.  The CLC has administered two primary programs serving the needs of the local aerospace industry and its workers.  The Aerospace Industry Training Partnership Program (CLC AITP) trained and matched dislocated workers to good jobs in the region’s aerospace industry.  Its successor program – the Aerospace Industry Training Partnership Technically Advanced Proficiency Program (AITP-TAPP) – continues and expands this service to job-seekers and employers. It also assists aerospace firms such as Lockheed Martin, Bell Helicopter, Vought Aircraft Industries, Aerospace Technologies, Inc., Hampson Aerospace, Inc., and EFW in upgrading the skills of their incumbent workers.  For the purpose of this case study, we refer to these two programs under one name – CLC-AITP-TAPP – when we are describing elements that are common to both initiatives. 

CLC-AITP-TAPP is a multi-employer, multi-union initiative in aerospace, designed to develop an industry-led workforce preparation model that will reduce the present and projected shortage of qualified workers in the Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas region.  Both the International Association of Machinists (IAM) and the United Auto Workers (UAW) are full partners in this important effort.  The programs assist the employer partners – including those with fewer than 500 employees – by providing cost-effective employee recruiting, screening, training, assessment, and case management services.  In addition, CLC-AITP-TAPP offers job-seekers – drawn from the ranks of local dislocated workers and the long term unemployed – training, job placement and retention services.  This support, in turn, enables job-seekers to meet industry skill and performance requirements for area electrical, electronic, composite bonding, mechanical assembly and/or fabrication positions.  The combination of services contributes to improved wages and retention rates for new hires.  CLC-AITP-TAPP also promotes industry competitiveness by providing specific skills upgrading for incumbent workersto support the expanded and enhanced use of new technologies, materials, and methods in assembly and fabrication. 

The CLC-AITP Consortium that serves as the governing body for the project consists of representatives of the aerospace industry (both unions and employers), area Workforce Investment Boards, the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce, Tarrant County College, and others, and focuses the effort on maintaining the competitiveness of the industry in the Dallas-Forth Worth area, while increasing the overall stability of the region’s economy.

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Workforce Challenges

The partnership addressed two of the identified challenges:

Meeting employer demand while minimizing the deleterious effects of layoffs: While layoffs are a part of the manufacturing landscape, employment opportunities exist in the sector for those with relevant skills.  To address this challenge, workers and employers need: a) apprenticeship or skills standards projects that provide portable, industry-recognized credentials to help workers access available jobs and help employers find skilled workers; and b) mechanisms to assure that laid off manufacturing workers can promptly identify good manufacturing jobs still available in their regional labor markets.  

Although, AITP started with a partnership among the larger aerospace firms, its recruitment, training and placement services were soon successfully marketed to smaller aerospace employers in the region as well.  Because of their size, these employers would have found it difficult or impossible to address their human resources needs efficiently on their own thus meeting a second common challenge in the manufacturing sector:

Responding to small and medium sized firms’ and/or facilities’ (those with less than 500 employees) recruitment and training needs: In recent years, large, formerly vertically integrated firms have aggressively embraced the outsourcing and subcontracting of many of their component parts.  In the process, they have made their own operations leaner and meaner, while pushing significant parts of the production process to firms that are typically smaller.  These smaller firms generally have fewer resources to commit to training and education programs and/or new employee recruitment.  Many small and mid-sized firms have no full-time human resources managers, and their education and training programs often consist of tuition reimbursement policies, where individual workers must take the initiative to obtain additional education and training on their own.  To promote cost-effective new worker recruitment and incumbent worker training within these smaller firms, initiatives that facilitate common training, assessment, screening, etc. for jobs at small and medium size manufacturers are especially important.  Cross-employer skills training – while always desirable – can help ensure, in a cost-effective way, that workers in smaller firms get the skills they need to compete in the global economy.  Training and education programs should link to economic development policies that respond to the needs of sectors, industries and local or regional economies.

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Understanding the Demand and Meeting It

There are approximately 34,000 aerospace products and parts manufacturing jobs in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.  The aerospace location quotient is 3.7, a high ratio, indicating the significance of this industry in the regional economy.¹  Average wages for aerospace workers in the region are close to $20 per hour.  Together, the figures demonstrate that these are high-skilled/high-wage jobs in a highly desirable industry for the local economy.  Moreover, the multiplier effect of these jobs is considerable: every aerospace job supports 1.61 additional jobs in indirect and induced production.  As a result, aerospace employers and the unions representing their employees shared concerns about retaining and growing this important industry in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.  They recognized a present and future shortage of qualified workers in the industry and sought to address it.  In recent years, Lockheed Martin, a key employer, had moved workers from the F-16 fighter jet production line to meet its F-22 production needs.  Other employers also had actual, or anticipated, needs for additional workers.  The smaller facilities, many of which are Tier 1 suppliers to larger original equipment manufacturers, were particularly concerned about how they would cost-effectively train workers to fill vacant positions.

This generalized demand for skilled aerospace workers, as experienced by Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company-Ft. Worth, Bell Helicopter Textron, Vought Aircraft Industries, Aerospace Technologies, Hampson, and Interconnect Wiring ultimately brought a range of organizations together to work on training and job placement for the industry.  These companies, the unions representing the companies’ workers, and local training program operators, recognized the need to establish a joint program in order to avoid costly duplication of efforts and to benefit from a collaborative initiative. 

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Program Partners

Because of its existing collaborative structure, the Community Learning Center, Inc. (CLC, Inc.) was a good home for this new initiative.  The CLC was established by the Tarrant County Central Labor Council in 2000 as a workforce development organization to assist area job-seekers.  A board of directors, consisting of representatives from industry/business, labor, as well as educational, community, and faith-based organizations, governs the CLC.  It operates a number of programs that serve individuals with special needs and barriers to employment, including the unemployed, underemployed, workers seeking career advancement opportunities, at risk youth, youth offenders, poor and excluded job-seekers, and people with disabilities.

In 2001, CLC, Inc. launched the Aerospace Industry Training Partnership (AITP) with the initial participation of Lockheed Martin; Bell Helicopter; the International Association of Machinists & Aerospace Workers (IAM&AW) District Lodge 776; United Automobile, Aerospace, Agricultural Implement Workers of America (UAW) Local 218; Workforce Solutions for Tarrant County (Tarrant County Workforce Development Board); Tarrant County College; the Fort Worth Opportunity Center; and the Tarrant County Central Labor Council.  Later, WorkSource for Dallas County (Dallas County Workforce Development Board), North Central Texas WorkForce (North Central Texas Workforce Development Board), and the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce joined the project.  These parties serve as the AITP Consortium and are a key to the operation’s success.  There are quarterly meetings of this industry-led consortium that serve as a project steering group to sort through tough issues and propose workable solutions for the operation of the program.

The 2001 Department of Labor Skills Shortage II demonstration grant that funded the AITP program allowed the partnership to focus on increasing the skills of dislocated workers in order to meet local industry needs.  The resources provided by the grant substantially reduced employment-related costs for the participating companies.  The success of this collaboration and the identification of additional training needs prompted the partners to seek – and win – additional DOL funding two years later to continue the program.  At that time, the Board re-named the program the Aerospace Industry Training Partnership Technically Advanced Proficiency Project (AITP-TAPP) and expanded it to incorporate new technology-related training and skills upgrading for incumbent workers.  The CLC also created a Bridges Program to help participants from a foundation-funded project that serves poor and excluded job-seekers in Fort Worth to qualify for the AITP-TAPP program.

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Program Activities and Methods

 Effective Placement of Dislocated Workers in Entry-Level Aerospace Jobs 

To assist its employer partners with new employee placement as well as to ensure that the new placements meet industry performance requirements, the program provides the following services to dislocated workers and long-term unemployed workers seeking aircraft assembly jobs:  recruitment, screening, training, assessment, job placement, retention, case management, and support services. 

Although the program does not require previous manufacturing experience, a number of dislocated workers come from other smaller manufacturing plants in the region.  Eighty-eight percent (88%) of the AITP project participants had a high school diploma or GED, and 12% had some post-secondary education.  Over 50% of the job-seekers served by the subsequent AITP-TAPP program, however, had some post-secondary education, as screening was tightened up in response to the needs of the industry partners for more qualified workers.² 

This relatively uniform educational level, together with the involvement of many industry and labor representatives, allowed the partners to develop a single curriculumthat serves the needs of manyarea employers seeking to hire entry-level aircraft assemblers.  Although the majority of program graduates have hired on at the larger area employers – Lockheed Martin, Vought, and BHTI– CLC-AITP and TAPP graduates have also found jobs at Lear, Gulfstream Aero, Spirit Avionics, L3 Communications, Interconnect Wiring, Aerobotics Industries and others – most of which have fewer than 500 employees. 

The job-seekers’ training program provides both classroom and hands-on training within a virtual/simulated factory laboratory environment located in the Fort Worth Opportunity Center. Together, the CLC and the AITP Consortium partners developed the Laboratory through ongoing, coordinated efforts.  Industry representatives, especially from Lockheed Martin, BHTI and Vought, have been extensively involved in developing the training curriculum, ensuring that the program responds to true employer needs for aircraft frame assembly skills. 

While the Tarrant County College provides instructors to the program, the use of retired journey-workers who serve as mentors to trainees has been a key component of the training.  The mentors help workers gain an understanding of the attitudes and behaviors needed for teamwork in high performance organizations.  These retired journeymen aircraft mentors also teach the occupational skills necessary to work in the ever-changing aerospace industry.

The original AITP participants received 240 hours of training over a six-week period for eight hours each day³ (During the course, CLC provides participants with all necessary tools, thus saving them the costs often associated with this kind of program.)  

The course work requires trainees to clock in and out just as they would on the job; their attendance record becomes part of their training portfolio.  The curriculum covers such topics as: manufacturing math, basic engineering drawing, layout, electrical bonding, plumbing, precision measurement, measuring torque, reaming, countersinking, riveting, blind fasteners, and shop floor safety.  In addition, participants must pass skills-based practical assessments in which they produce a part to specification.

Total achievement scores are based on practical exams that test trainees’ knowledge based on required course work.  In addition, participants undergo identical testing in manufacturing mathematics and precision measurements on their first day of the training and on their final day.

As each training sequence nears completion, the program prepares graduates for immediate as well as subsequent employment.  Personal achievement portfolios that accompany participants to job interviews contain their attendance records and clock-in times, as well as their skills-based practical scores and course work scores.  Moreover, those workers who successfully complete the program qualify for preferential interviews with participating companies and can earn up to thirty continuing education units toward a college degree.

 Skills Upgrading for Incumbent Workers at Lockheed Martin

As cited above, the partners soon realized that the industry’s current workforce could use the virtual factory laboratory environment to obtain specialized training defined by company needs.  The LM Aero Incumbent Worker Electrical Assembly Training Program began in January 2004 and now includes certification in methods of soldering for electrical harnesses, as well as courses in plumbing, electrical installation and structural hydraulics.  In the incumbent worker program, workers must first complete classroom training before they go to shop floor/on the job training (OJT).  OJT requires workers to integrate what they learned in the classroom and demonstrate their knowledge and skills by performing actual work tasks.  Upon completion of OJT, workers receive acertificate and can then apply their new skills as necessary in their jobs.

The CLC recognizes that different employers have different priorities for skills upgrading, but has also determined that some skills will be useful to many different employers.  The fact that many of the smaller companies are Tier 1 suppliers of the same parts to different customers made classroom instruction on common aspects of production possible. 

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Connections to the Public Workforce System

Both the state and federal workforce systems have been deeply involved in this endeavor.  A 2001 Department of Labor Skills Shortage II Secretary’s Reserve Fund grant of $2.8 million enabled the Community Learning Center to leverage the AITP Consortium partners’ investments into an innovative dislocated workers’ training and placement program to fill available and future aerospace jobs.  Because of the project’s initial success, DOL extended it with a grant of over $1.1 million under the President’s High Growth Job Training Initiative for the successor AITP-TAPP project—this time supporting training for both dislocated workers and other job-seekers and incumbent workers.⁴ 

Three Workforce Investment Boards (WIBs) are now part of the enhanced program: Workforce Solutions for Tarrant County, WorkSource for Dallas County, and North Central Texas WorkForce.  They serve primarily to refer dislocated and long-term unemployed workers to the program.  North Central Texas WorkForce and Workforce Solutions for Tarrant County have a written memorandum of understanding with the Community Learning Center, the fiscal agent and host organization for the project, and have been active members of the AITP Steering Committee.  Moreover, the Dallas Board has recently become more active, referring WIA-enrolled dislocated and long-term unemployed workers to the program.  Representatives from all three WIBs also serve on the AITP steering committee.  The WIBs are able to provide support for services such as transportation and child care costs when the participants are determined to be dislocated workers eligible for assistance under WIA. 

CLC recently received a short-term contract from Workforce Solutions for Tarrant County to continue operations of the AITP-TAPP Aircraft Structural Assembly Training Program for three months beyond the end of the DOL grant funding period.  In addition, CLC has secured certification of this training program from the Texas Workforce Commission Training Provider Certification System (TPCS).  CLC is currently working with the area WIBs to market the program to workers with Individual Training Accounts (ITAs).  CLC will also be seeking certification of its new Basic Composite Bonding Training Course with the Texas Workforce Commission.

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Program Funding Sources

To complement the public dollars, the program partners have themselves made more than one million dollars worth of in-kind contributions to the program.  Employers donated tools and equipment and provided other materials for both of the training programs.  In addition, Lockheed Martin loaned the AITP program a consultant’s time to revise the original dislocated worker training curriculum.  LM Aero has also provided personnel to grade the “final practical” of the AITP-TAAP Aircraft Structural Assembly Training program.  Based on this grade alone, the program determines whether a participant has passed or failed.  For its part, BELL Helicopter has provided a Basic Composite Bonding Training Course Curriculum and has assigned a company trainer to work with the other composite bonding partners and staff.  Together, the team customized the curriculum for this course, which began in the fall of 2005. 

Other employers have also contributed staff to provide consultation, oversight and other services to the program.  Industry and labor representatives monitor the curriculum and the operations through participation on the consortium steering committee and in the recruitment of union mentors. 

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Barriers Overcome

In the volatile manufacturing labor market of Dallas-Fort Worth, matching the supply of successful trainees to employers’ current hiring demands is a serious challenge.  Initially, the program focused only on meeting the employment needs of its original employer partners as the CLC expected that Lockheed Martin would absorb virtually all graduates.  In fact, the company hired just over 50% of the graduates in the first year, and hired over 500 graduates during the first two years of the program.  When Lockheed Martin hiring slowed and eventually stopped in 2003, however, the program made a concerted effort to expand its contacts with other area employers for the purpose of referring graduates, even while continuing to train new job-seekers.  As a result of this outreach, other aerospace employers became interested in CLC program operations and agreed to provide preferential interviews to graduates.

The transition was possible because the curriculum included general technical training in aircraft assembly, which was readily transferable to these other employers.

The consortium of CLC participants, therefore, collectively addressed the uneven and intermittent demand of individual – and mostly smaller – employers.  As a collaborative effort, the AITP programs produce a steady flow of trainees, so that each employer can be assured of a highly-qualified pool of applicants at relatively short notice, while job applicants can be assured access to a preferential interview and probable employment at the end of their training period.

The program also addressed a barrier presented by industry-defined criteria for admission to training that included reading and math skills at least at the 8th grade level.  To help applicants meet these standards, the program developed an academic/ remediation program that provided a second chance for those who could not perform at this level on their first test.  As part of their Academic Remediation Course, Bridges Program participants could also practice taking the Tests of Adult Basic Education (TABE).  The program successfully qualified additional participants through these interventions, at the same time that it helped other participants, unable to perform at the required reading and math levels, find employment elsewhere.  While this program has not been the sole source of company new hires over the past few years, management from the participating firms report that workers hired from the program generally out-perform other new hires and have better-than-average retention rates.  

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Program Results and Returns to Stakeholders/Partners

The program has had a significant impact for all of the partners:

Benefits to Companies: 

• As of July 2006, the CLC AITP Aircraft Structural Assembly and Basic Composite Bonding Training Programs had successfully trained 1,175 dislocated workers and placed 1,085 into a total of 1,194 jobs, 774 (65%) within the aerospace industry.  Six-month retention rates with the two companies hiring the most workers, Lockheed Martin (n=527) and Vought (n=151), have been 89% and 78%, respectively.
• Because the average age of an aircraft assembler in the DFW area is approximately 55, many employers can replace their retiring workers with the qualified workers provided by the program.  The average age of the dislocated workers trained and employed by the program has been approximately 40 years.
• The shared training capacity helps employers fill new job openings in a cost effective manner.
• Efficiencies in training lead to greater competitiveness for the participating firms and greater employment security for the workers.
• Participating companies gain the opportunity to interview potential employees who have been trained as aircraft assemblers through a course that these companies helped to design.
• The program provides employers – especially those smaller facilities with fewer recruitment and training resources – with a steady stream of trained job applicants regardless of the hiring schedule of each individual employer.  The training schedule is not interrupted simply because no jobs are available with one potential employer, and as a result, trainers, trainees and employers can avoid lengthy periods of searching for jobs, on the one hand, or for workers, on the other. 
• The joint initiative guarantees a standardized skill quality for employers throughout the DFW area.
• The Incumbent Worker Training Programs provide participating firms with a better- skilled and more flexible workforce, so that they can respond more efficiently to modifications in products or contract demands, and advances in manufacturing techniques.

Benefits to the Participants:

Dislocated workers and long term unemployed job-seekers:

• The CLC AITP training programs have demonstrated their usefulness to job-seekers interested in manufacturing jobs in the Dallas-Forth Worth area.  Since its inception, 1,370 workers have enrolled in these programs, of whom 1,175 (86%) have successfully completed training.  In addition, the program has placed 1,085 dislocated workers into a total of 1,194 jobs; 65% within the aerospace industry, with many of the others employed in related industry sectors.
• Job-seekers who successfully pass the training course receive a preferential interview with key aerospace employers.  Most of the dislocated workers have no previous employment in the aerospace industry and would not have qualified for these jobs.  This is also the case with participants from the Bridges Program.
• Participant job-seekers learn skills that are identified by the local industry as requisite for entry-level assembly positions in aerospace companies.  Successful participants master the basics of manufacturing mathematics, engineering drawings, precision measurements, drilling/reaming/countersinking, fastener applications, and basic computer operations.  The training is delivered in a virtual factory environment that replicates the on-the-job experience future workers will face in the industry.  This experience helps them determine whether or not they want such a career and prepares them to transition successfully into their new jobs.  Those who graduate from the program receive thirty continuing education units toward an Associate’s or Bachelor’s degree – a benefit that helps broaden future job prospects.
• Wage gains are clear.  Fifty percent (50%) of the participants in the original AITP Program, who were unemployed prior to entering training, secured higher wage rates from an aerospace industry placement than from their previous job.  Nearly 76% of those employed at the time of project application (dislocated workers can participate in programs from the time of the notice of their layoffs) secured higher wages in new jobs in the aerospace industry. 

Incumbent workers:

• Incumbent workers gain the additional training necessary to adapt to changing jobs or processes in their companies, thus increasing their employment security.  The trained workers place themselves on a career ladder that makes them eligible for future income gains.  The additional training also enables some incumbent workers to bid on new job openings and advance their careers within the company. 
• In the new Composite Bonding Incumbent Worker program (see below), a union contract provision stipulates that Bell Helicopter Textron Bonder B Workers who complete training will be promoted to Bonder A positions and gain an average wage increase of $1.50 per hour. 

Benefits to the Unions:

• Participating unions gain a role in insuring the availability of the training necessary for present and future aerospace jobs.  They participate in an industry-led program that reduces the costs and insures the quality of new hire and incumbent worker training for the local aerospace industry, thus helping to guarantee the continued presence of high- skilled/high-wage jobs in the region.  The savings produced by this recruitment, training and assessment consortium frees up scarce resources, which unions and employers can then allocate to other priorities in a highly competitive industry.
• The incumbent worker training program benefits the union by advancing career opportunities for skilled workers. 
• The program enhances the unions’ reputation in the community.  Increasingly, job-seekers and the broader community recognize labor’s role in this collaborative effort. Moreover, through the involvement of retired UAW and IAM mentors, the program showcases the skills and expertise of journeymen union members.   

Benefits to Other Stakeholders:

• Participating Workforce Development Boards benefit by achieving increased placement and wage rates for their clients.  At the same time, they provide services to meet the workforce demands of important area employers in a way that builds greater confidence in the public workforce system.  
• The Tarrant County Community College gains a new student base, and, through the use of its facilities at the Fort Worth Opportunity Center (FWOC) for CLC-AITP training of dislocated workers, is further able to demonstrate its relevance to the community’s needs.  [NOTE:  TCC took over operation of FWOC in 2005.]
• The Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce and economic development authorities benefit by insuring that workforce development programs and dollars are tied to real economic development needs in the area.  This collaborative mechanism guarantees that employers, labor, and educational institutions all understand the education and training needs necessary for retaining these important jobs in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.  The entire community benefits by retaining its well-paid manufacturing base, a base that is a pillar of the continuing prosperity in the region and an important generator of additional manufacturing and service jobs.

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Next Steps for the Program and/or the Partnership

Through a no-cost extension of its DOL grant, AITP-TAP as described in this study, operated through May 2006.  Prior to the end of the DOL grant period, CLC had the Aircraft Structural Assembly Training Program certified by the TWC Training Provider Certification System and secured a short-term contract with Workforce Solutions of Tarrant County to continue operation of the training program with dislocated workers through August 2006.  This has provided CLC and the three WIBs with additional time to market the training program to Workforce Center Customers with Individual Training Accounts, which is the standard mechanism for public funding for dislocated workers’ training. 

As evidence of the program’s general utility to its industry and community partners, CLC and the AITP last year secured a Wagner-Peyser 7(b) grant from the Texas Office of the Governor and the Texas Workforce Commission (TWC) to develop and implement a demonstration aerospace composite bonding training program for dislocated and incumbent workers.  Composite bonding is an emergent technology in aircraft assembly that uses stronger, but lighter-weight materials in the construction of helicopters and airplanes, and, thus, represents a new career path for workers in the aerospace industry.  This Project recently concluded its first year of operations, and has been funded for a second.  During its first year, the Project successfully trained 68 dislocated workers through its Basic Composite Bonding Training Course, and has thus far placed 31 into jobs (21 within aerospace), and successfully piloted an Advanced Composites Fabrication Course for incumbent workers at Bell Helicopter Textron, intended to advance them from Level B to Level A Bonder positions.  Wage rates for these positions vary by company.  The project had targeted entry level positions at Bell Helicopter Textron that range from $10.86 to $12.00 per hour, and entry level wage rates at Vought Aircraft Industries that range from $10.00 to $15.00 per hour, both accompanied by full benefit packages. 

It is important to note that this evolving component of the program demonstrates the advantages of the flexible, multi-union, multi-employer approach to training for this type of industry.  As technologies change, as companies grow or contract in response to their own business cycles, and as workers seek new skills and broader opportunities, this program structure remains able to accommodate new needs and demands from the entire range of clients and participants.

For more information, contact Tom Gannon at tgannon@workingforamerica.org or info@workingforamerica.org.