Spotlights on the Aeronautics Industry
The aeronautics industry is one of the most important high-tech sectors of the European Union
and a key driver of European cohesion and competitiveness, playing a fundamental role in
facilitating economic growth and social inclusion. Recent economic data suggests the
aeronautics industry will continue to grow strongly over the next 20 years. To achieve this
sustained growth, this sector depends on the availability of a highly skilled labor force.
By Fred Verboon
What is the Fly Higher project?
The aeronautics industry is one of the most important high-tech sectors of the European Union (EU), representing
220 billions of Euros and providing 4,5 million of jobs in Europe, a figure that should double by 2020. Although the
economic outlook is very promising, this industry deals with decreased recruitment rates of young people due to
lower proportions of qualified young people who are embracing mathematics, physics and engineering studies.
This is a major concern for the aeronautic industry.
The project “FLY HIGHER - Shaping the new evolving generation of aeronautic professionals” is funded with the
support of the European Commission under the Seventh Framework Programme and it plans to give a relevant
contribution to raising the interest of young Europeans for engineering activities in the field of aeronautics with
the aim of attracting them at a later stage to scientific and technical careers in the aeronautical sector. The
programme of activities is focused on establishing a closer dialogue between the Aeronautics industry, leading
universities and the scholar communities. The activities include hands-on experiments, visits, open labs,
workshops, exhibitions, competitions, science cafes, training for teachers and career advisors, etc..
The number of jobs in aeronautics will double by 2020
Labor Force and Skills
From its early days at the beginning of the 20th century till today the aerospace sector has required a highly
educated and innovative work force. According to Aerospace and Defence Industries Association of Europe (ASD),
35% of jobs in aeronautics are highly skilled jobs.
In the ongoing demographic trend, the sector is competing with other sectors and requires a quantitative and
qualitative employment preparation and forecast. Europe’s demographic development is characterised by an aging
population and a decline of younger age groups. In the aeronautics industry, there is a relatively large population
of employees between 35-50 years old. Decreased recruitment rates of young persons, in part also related to
longer education periods and more frequent use of early retirement schemes, has enlarged the weight of these
middle age employees. The main concern is, of course, that when these middle-age employees reach the age of
retirement, replacement rates will increase. The aging of the baby boomer generation indicates that an increasing
percentage of the workforce will be eligible to retire in coming years. This demographic change in association with
lower proportions of qualified young people who are embracing for mathematics, physics and engineering studies
and careers is a major concern for the aeronautic industry.
Another concern is gender distribution. This sector is characterised by an underrepresentation of women. The
activities performed by women concentrate mainly in administrative and marketing tasks. The usual rule is: The
higher the portion of manufacturing, the lower the quota of women. Initiatives to make working in this field more
attractive to female students and trainees can contribute to overcome the shortage of qualified staff on the long
term. In this context, shortage of qualified personnel may affect this sector in the future, unless there is a joint
effort to attract, motivate and encourage young Europeans to embrace future careers in the field of Aeronautics.
This implies that the scholar community, academia and industry need to think and work more tightly to engage
children and youth in this field and to reverse this trend.
An increasing percentage of the aeronautics
workforce will retire in coming years
With the FLY HIGHER activities, with focus on raising the interest of young Europeans for engineering
activities in the field of aeronautics, the program intends to reverse this trend of aging of professionals in this field
and also motivate students to learn more and acquire the relevant skills and knowledge to be excellent future
aeronautic researcher or/and industry professionals.
Sciences and Engineering Education
Statistics show a declining interest for natural sciences and engineering. In all European countries, science
education starts with one general integrated subject and is taught in this way throughout the entire primary
education. In several countries the same approach is continuous for one or two years into lower secondary
education; and by the end of lower secondary education, science teaching has usually been split into the separate
subjects of biology, chemistry and physics.
At general upper secondary level, the large majority of European countries adopts a 'separate subject' approach
and organises science teaching differently depending on streams and educational pathways chosen by students. In
terms of higher education, the diversity is even higher with a pretty large variety of systems and programmes
structures in each national system. Consequently, not all students are taught science at the same level of difficulty
and/or throughout all grades. Over the last six years, there have been general curriculum reforms at different
levels of education in more than half of the European countries. These reforms have also affected science
curricula; the main driver for reform in many countries has been a desire to embrace the European key
competences approach. In this context, countries have made efforts to integrate more context-based issues and
hands-on activities into science curricula. The reforms in various countries where science skills were re-focused in
line with key competences illustrate the desire of policy makers to raise the importance of science.
Your involvement
The Fly Higher project will deliver ready-to-use counselor career kits, training for teachers, interactive curriculum
content, open labs, workshops, exhibitions, competitions and science cafes. Would you (or your school) like to take
part in the project, please send a mail to Fredverboon@gmail.com.
This project has been funded with support from the European Commission.
This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be
held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein