04-17-2022 Education - Flipbook - Page 2
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The Baltimore Sun | Sunday, April 17, 2022
Building a stronger workforce
Schools create programs tailored to industry needs
By Linda L. Esterson, Contributing Writer
T
he pandemic wreaked havoc on many
industries, and some, like health care and
hospitality, garnered more headlines. The
aviation industry, too, endured its share of
heartache with business and recreational
travel limited.
In its Global Fleet and MRO Market Forecast for
2022-2032, the Aeronautical Repair Station Association
acknowledges COVID’s impact on the industry. The
report cites an expected workforce shortfall, particularly for pilots and aviation mechanics, that expanded
as enrollment in training programs waned and baby
boomers opted for retirement during the pandemic.
The Aviation Technician Education Council’s 2021
Pipeline Report & Aviation Maintenance School
Directory cites that 63% of the current workforce is
over age 50 and less than 7% are under age 30.
However, even with the drop in consumer travel,
the demand continued for aviation mechanics as a
result of an increase in online shopping and the need
for private travel.
“There’s no better time to become an aircraft
technician,” says Steven D. Sabold, vice president of
operations for the Pittsburgh Institute of Aeronautics
(PIA), which holds classes on four campus including
Hagerstown, Maryland. “The demand was really on
a very high precipice pre-COVID, and while COVID
created a little bit of a reprieve, it actually in the long run
made the shortage even worse.”
In existence since 1929, PIA trains aviation mechanics through its aviation maintenance
technology program to prepare for the Federal
Aviation Administration’s Airframe and Powerplant
Certification. Students complete coursework in aerospace math, aerospace physics, blueprint reading and
drawing, metallurgy (working with the metal components), working with composite materials, hydraulics
and pneumatics (air compression).
The fully in-person program runs for 16 consecutive months in four semesters in Hagerstown; the
Pittsburgh campus includes an associate’s degree and
continues for 21 months. PIA has received accolades
including landing No. 1 on Forbes’ top two-year trade
schools list in 2018.
Graduates fill roles at commercial airlines like
Piedmont and Spirit Airlines, but also with delivery
companies like FedEx and UPS or for private corporations with individual aircraft or even the state
police, military and medical transportation companies
and sports teams and leagues. Aircraft manufacturing
leaders like Boeing, GE Aviation, Rolls Royce, Pratt
and Whitney and others also tap FIA graduates. A
recent job fare netted a total of 28 job offers for the 18
students who finish this spring, and not all of the participating companies were in aviation. Many companies
are enhancing job offers to include sign-on bonuses,
reduced health insurance premiums, additional vacation and higher retirement plan matches.
Clayton Myers enrolled in Loyola’s master’s program in data science and is now director of admission operations at
Loyola.
“What’s in such demand is the transferrable skills
of our students,” says Roxanne Ober, PIA’s director of
admissions and outreach. “In addressing workforce
needs, aviation is huge. It plays a role in our daily life.”
Also playing a key role in daily life in all fields is
data. It’s involved in marketing, purchasing, determining a customer base, and predicting and evaluating
trends, whether in retail operations, medical outcomes
and even efficiency of COVID vaccines. Most of the
decisions made in business, government and virtually
every industry are the result of interpretations based
on data science.
“Data science came from a combination of statistics
and computer science in business, with companies
realizing they had all of this data and they need to
know what to do with it,” explains Megan Olsen, Ph.D,
associate professor and chair of the department of computer science at Loyola University Maryland. “It’s the
gathering and analyzing of data to answer some type of
problem or question.”
Naturally, data science is an industry experiencing
great growth. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor
Statistics, employment in mathematical science occupations will grow nearly 28% from 2016 to 2026, and
data scientist is one of the occupations that falls in this
category.
Loyola University Maryland’s master’s degree in
data science launched in spring 2017 to prepare students for advanced positions in the field. Today, the program continues to receive accolades – Fortune named
Loyola’s program sixth best online master’s degree in
data science for 2022 and Intelligent.com named the
program among the top 50 for 2021.
The program, offered partially online, offers two
specializations – technical and business analytics. The
technical specialization focuses on data preparation
and machine learning, which involves instructing computer systems to make predictions with data. With
this specialization, graduates become data scientists,
focusing on machine learning, data visualization, data
mining and other aspects of analyzing data. The business analytics specialization, meanwhile, shares many
of the same core courses but focuses more on the tools
and software utilized instead of the machine learning
and programming.
The program is available for enrollment on a fulltime or part-time basis and could be completed in less
than two years with summer coursework included.
Most students, Olsen says, work full time and complete
the program to advance to higher level data scientist
and analyst positions.
“So many of the decisions being made in the world
right now are being made from looking at data,” Olsen
says. “We need people who know how to look at data
correctly and ethically so that we make the right decisions.”
A new master of science degree program at Coppin
State University aims to equip students with the skills
needed to further research and innovation related to the
use of polymers in the manufacturing industry.
The masters in polymer and material sciences, a
program first offered last fall, gives students a general
understanding of design, synthesis, characterization
and function leading to an in-depth knowledge of the
structure-property relationships in a large number of
materials classified as biomaterials, bioplastics, blended
fuels, non-materials, biomarkers and soft polymers.
According to Mintesinot Jiru, Ph.D., professor and
chair of the department of natural sciences at Coppin
State University, the program was developed to enable
partnerships and research collaborations with industry
leaders and to provide a future workforce well-versed
in the use of polymers in manufacturing. According
to the Maryland Department of Labor, Licensing and
Regulation, workforce needs in the polymer manufacturing industry will exceed 6,000 by the year 2024.
Jiru notes that polymers comprise much of the
items used on a daily basis, in a variety of industries
including medicine, sports, garments and textiles, government and automobiles. Plastic grocery bags are one
example of polymer use in society today. Winter coats
that are thinner and lighter are another. Contact lenses
are made of polymers.
“We are a polymer-based economy nowadays,” he
says. “The workforce demand in this area is so huge,
that’s why we feel that we are in the right space to
address the demand.”
Currently, Coppin State University is partnered
with Materic, a Baltimore company known for its
production of nanofiber and nanowire technologies.
Together, the company and Coppin faculty and students
are working to develop pressure responsive fibers for
use in smart garments. Materic has created a scholarship program for its employees to enroll in Coppin’s
master’s program. Coppin leaders hope to also contract
with other leading local manufacturers like Under
Armour and Lockheed Martin.
The master’s program, available for full or part-time
enrollment, comprises 36 credits in advanced coursework related to polymer nanoparticles, computational
chemistry, thermodynamics and polymer chemistry.
Students also enroll in elective courses and complete
a research project they defend in the final semester. As
the program is hands-on with lectures and laboratory
components, students participate entirely in-person.
Those enrolled are working professionals; to accommodate them, all classes and labs are held during evening
hours.
“The bigger picture of this is in terms of addressing
the global economy because our lives have changed
with polymers and biopolymers,” Jiru explains. “They
have transformed our lives.”
Business partnerships
Real-world connections for students are key
UMBC leverages its business partnerships to help students land real-world job opportunities.
By E. Rose Scarff, Contributing Writer
T
o plan curriculums that provide students
with the education and experience they
need for success, universities and businesses
form advisory and teaching connections to
keep learning current.
At the University of Maryland,
Baltimore County (UMBC), Universities at Shady
Grove, both graduate and undergraduate offerings
in biotech and life sciences are offered. UMBC
builds relationships with companies throughout
the region. These external advisors help them
with sharpening their curriculum, so they focus
on what is relevant in the industry now.
“We have adjunct professors from leading
biotech firms in the area as well as guest lecturers
from biotech firms to the National Institutes of
Health (NIH) on regulatory side,” says Annica
Wayman, Ph.D., associate dean for Shady Grove
Affairs, college of natural and mathematical sciences. “This gives students an opportunity to be
exposed to places where they might like to intern
or seek employment after graduation.”
Adjunct faculty and guest lecturers are able to
give applied examples of what is taught in class.
Whether it is how instruments work in practice
in an instrumentation class or how Homeland
Security works with pandemics, students are
exposed to real world challenges. The legal and
ethical issues involved in biotech fields are also
introduced.
A May 2021 Bachelor of Science graduate
in translational life science technology (biotechnology, TLST), Loic Stephane Djoumessi Sao
is enthusiastic about her experience at UMBC,
Shady Grove. She transferred there after two years
at Montgomery College and cites the value of
the talks given by leaders from companies such
as GeneDX, AstraZeneca and American Gene
Technologies (AGT). “I was able to intern at AGT
and received an offer for full-time employment,”
says Sao. “The TLST program delivered on the
promise to provide laboratory skills necessary for
each student to go out there and be very competitive in the industry.”
In the graduate program, many of the students
are already working full-time but are required to
do a capstone project, which they can tie into their
work if applicable. Rotating topics are offered in
the graduate school, although taking a class in
project management is encouraged for those who
want to advance in their field.
At the University of Maryland (UMD) a new
fermentation science major will be offered beginning in the fall of 2022. Fermentation science
covers beverages, such as wine, beer, distilled
spirits and kombucha, and dairy foods such as
cheese and yogurt. It also includes vegetable foods
such as kimchi, tempeh and miso, as well as biotechnology industries in fields such as biofuels
and pharmaceuticals. The major was developed
because of a need expressed by area companies in
the fermentation industry.
“The industry is growing quickly in the region
and there is projected growth,” says Frank J. Coale,
Ph.D., assistant dean for strategic initiatives, college of agriculture and natural resources at UMD.
“Industry leaders need skilled and educated workers.”
UMD put it all together with a formal survey
to the industry to find out what course work
and experiences graduates should have to be
successful. “It was crystal clear that they should
have a solid science background,” says Coale.
“Companies would be able to train in the individual requirements of a particular industry, but
they need workers who understand the science
involved.”
The course work is heavy on solid STEM subjects for the first two years. In the third or fourth
years, students learn food microbiology, brewing
and distilling, advanced food techniques and
about taste and odors.
All the fermentation science in-lab experience is similar to what students would experience
in the real world only on a smaller scale. Each
student is required to do an internship, and there
is a huge demand for these students to supply a
trained workforce.
There has been a lot of interest from students,
whether for their own interest or as a career.
With the solid science background, they will get,
graduates will not be confined to the fermentation industry if they find that it is not really the
career path they want. They can go on to pursue
many other biological fields if their interest lies
elsewhere.
At Loyola University Maryland’s Selinger
School of Business, a team of executives in residence teach and mentor in each department of
the school in both graduate and undergraduate
divisions. “The executives in residence are fulltime faculty,” says Dave Luvison, D.B.A., executive
in residence, management and organizations in
the Selinger School, whose specialty is inter-organizational collaboration and strategic alliances.
“Each executive teaches a full course load and has
service responsibilities such as outreach to the
business community.”
All executives in residence have had work in
the real world experience in their field, which
enhances their teaching. “Some keep current with
business in the community by consulting,” says
Luvison, “or through their connections with professional associations.” The executives also work
to create internship and work opportunities for
students, which can be accessed through the
career center.
The Selinger School board members are also
from the business community. This crossflow
of information is essential to the school and the
students. The board members also share their
insights on the work they do and how they provide service to the community.
Currently the board has been doing a video
series on different topics which are now available
as podcasts. Many of the board members for the
Selinger School have also identified opportunities
for students and help mentor students.
The executive in residence format creates a
unique opportunity to help students plan their
career path, since these professors can speak from
experience. Some majors are easier to map than
others, such as accounting, for example, which has
specific requirements and tests to pass to become
a C.P.A. But a management major and others are
a little more nebulous in their trajectory, but the
guidance is still there.
Whatever the major, the main goal of the program is to help students to reach their potential
and get started on or advance their careers after
graduation. The Selinger School continues to
update and improve their methods to help their
students and the business community.