El Camino College Teams with Red Rocks CC to Create Aerospace Workforce Program

El Camino College of Torrance and Red Rocks Community College in Colorado have teamed to create a major aerospace workforce collaboration of great significance to the Southern California region.

The initiative, called “Space, Cyber and Supply Talent Development Center” (SCSTDC), bridges two aerospace hubs that share economic and workforce development goals. The initiative will enable students to take advantage of a program that takes them from the classroom directly into an aerospace career.

El Camino College says it has helped more than 6,600 people secure workforce training and apprenticeships leading to jobs at some 250 aerospace companies.

A report issued by aerospace representatives called “State of the Space Industrial Base 2020” included insights and recommendations for the industry including the importance of public private partnerships.

The report also called for the future of a STEM workforce, saying “talent, vision and education will drive the future of the US space industrial base” and that industry must be more proactive in “working across the US education system to develop the needed STEM talent.”

Read the report here.

In announcing the Space, Cyber and Supply Talent Development Center, the colleges set three major goals:

1.  Establish a new economic and workforce development educational effort focused on each respective institution’s strengths in aerospace and supply chain training

2.  Share specific company connections to further expand opportunities and placements.

3.  Establish reciprocity in instruction and shared best practices.

“By aligning the efforts of Red Rocks and El Camino, we will be able to work together to support the robust aerospace sectors in each of our respective regions,” said Dena P. Maloney, Ed.D., president of El Camino College, the hometown community college to the Los Angeles Air Force Base. The LA Air Force base houses the headquarters of the US Space Force’s Space and Missile Systems Center.

“I hope the SCSTDC becomes a juggernaut of collaboration for the aerospace industry and most importantly helps people who are unemployed and looking for new opportunities,” Maloney said.