MANSFIELD — A local high school senior who wants to be a car or truck mechanic likely had his mind opened recently to airborne possibilities.
That teenager who’s maybe thinking of working as an auto mechanic looked under an airplane cowling and saw many of the same things he works on in shop class.
Spark. Pistons. Crankshaft. The basic elements of a fuel combustion engine.
That experience — and a myriad of others — is the idea behind the third annual Aviation Career Day conducted recently at Mansfield Lahm Regional Airport, an event coordinated primarily by the Richland Community Development Group, Critical Ops, LLC. and Mansfield Lahm Regional Airport
Nearly 150 high school juniors and seniors from eight high schools in Richland, Crawford and Morrow counties attended the day-long event and left with eyes wide open about a litany of aviation-related careers thanks to around a dozen vendors.
It’s an event that has rapidly grown in popularity among local students. There were around 40 students in the first, 80 in the second year and 146 in the third.
An airplane mechanic was just one of the careers highlighted.
“One of the schools brought their automotive program to the event this year. I saw that instructor (later at the Bellville Street Fair) and he mentioned this event opened their eyes to the possibilities that are out there,” said Clint Knight, director of workforce development for the Richland Area Chamber & Economic Development.
“The skills cross over. It’s still an engine. It just flies instead of turning wheels on the ground,” Knight said.
(Below are supplied photos taken by Tom Beech during the Aviation Career Day at Mansfield Lahm Regional Airport on Sept. 16. The story continues below the photos.)
That understanding of aviation-related careers among local students is essential to future economic growth, according to Knight and Barrett Thomas, senior director of economic development at the chamber.
“In economic development, we talk a lot of about which comes first, the chicken or the egg. In this case, is it the talent … the people who want to do the jobs? Or is it the company that needs the workers?” Knight said.
“This event effectively is helping us align that effort so we have the opportunity to attract or get that company (to locate) at the airport, focused on aviation, aeronautics, advanced air mobility. Then we have generated that interest so we can pair those up at the same time,” he said.
“This is an effort to get the business attraction and the talent prepared at the same time so they can be interested in the work and be able to do the work right here and not have to go somewhere else to find those jobs,” Knight said.
Thomas, who recently worked to develop a five-year airport economic development plan approved by Mansfield City Council, agreed.
“A company will say, ‘Sure, I’ll take a look at Mansfield. What people do you have? Who would I hire? Those are the first questions. Our ability to sell Mansfield, the airport, for economic development is based on being able to answer the questions.
“The more documentation we have (is key) … the hard numbers around student interests, certifications, where people are headed,” Thomas said.
“If our students are going into aerospace industries, even if they have to move to Columbus or Cleveland or Toledo, if we can document that interest comes from here, then it’s easier to (attract companies).
“We don’t have all of those industries for them to have jobs (here) at the moment, but that interest is here and you can locate here and capture those folks. The Aviation Career Day goes a long way towards documenting that actual interest,” Thomas said.
Students, many of them seniors at Mansfield Senior High School, visited with a wide range of vendors at the event:
— Modern Avionics & Maintenance Inc.
— Pittsburgh Institute of Aeronautics
— The 910th Airlift Wing of the U.S. Air Force Reserve based in Youngstown.
A recent study ranking Ohio’s airports, done by the Ohio Department of Transportation, said Mansfield Lahm Regional Airport has 1,768 employees (including the members of the Ohio Air National Guard’s 179th Cyberspace Wing), an annual payroll of $70.3 million and a total economic impact of nearly $400 million.
Continued economic development at and around the airport and its industrial parks is a goal of the chamber.
Events like Aviation Career Day help move the needle on those goals, according to Thomas.
“People at the state (level) are thinking, ‘We’ve got these aerospace companies. We should make sure we include Mansfield in this search process and they are reaching out to us,'” he said.
“The growing number of students taking part in this is building momentum and interest and momentum matters a lot,” Thomas said.
“It’s a huge deal to be able to have so many students from that many schools … districts willing to do bus transportation, willing to take a day from their classroom schedules to get these kids this opportunity.”
Knight said the interest among the students, the schools and the vendors is increasing.
“We are excited about the conversations we are having with the instructors and the students. There is a future pipeline here and that will tie directly to the airport as we get more career opportunities,” he said.
