Each year, The Boeing Company partners with OSPI to host instructors from Core Plus Aerospace partner schools across the state for multi-day professional development workshops at its Everett or Renton facilities. The sessions serve to reinforce industry standards and basic skills required of entry-level manufacturing employees, provide project ideas that Core Plus Aerospace instructors can take back to the classroom, and offer a forum for instructors to share with and learn from one another. Boeing also benefits by hearing first-hand what’s happening in Core Plus classrooms and what resources and skills instructors are seeking.
“The benefit is that we get to work with these instructors and train them up, so that their programs are preparing students to come get entry-level jobs,” said Mike O’Neil, workforce specialist at Boeing. “To talk about it is one thing; to be able to come in here and witness everything that’s going on, along with getting on-site training, I think that really brings value, really drives it home.”
“It’s important for teachers to get as much training with the Core Plus curriculum as possible just to ensure what they’re saying lines up with what the industry is currently doing,” said Russell Littleton, Core Plus Aerospace instructor at the Puget Sound Skills Center in Burien. “The industry is always evolving, changing, improving itself, and I want to make sure that I’m keeping up on top of those changes and improvements and making sure that what the students are receiving in my classroom is valuable information that the industry is using currently.”
Nan Johnson, a Core Plus Aerospace instructor at Todd Beamer High School in Federal Way sees ongoing professional training as a necessity. “If we don’t keep up with the standards and the changes in the real world, our students aren’t going to be ready to graduate and go on to any postsecondary experience.”
Want more info? Reach out to Boeing’s workforce development team (workdev@exchange.boeing.com) or OSPI’s CTE team (careerandcollegeready@k12.wa.us) to learn more about professional development opportunities as well as grant money that’s available to help cover related costs.