Members of the FAA Academy recently had discussions about ways to improve their workforce research. During these dialogues, they realized that learning from industry and academia had multiple advantages. They opted to partner with the University of Oklahoma’s Price College of Business in the fall semester of 2021 for a capstone project. The project focused on looking at the commercial space industry and the nature of the workforce which supports that industry. It was an eye-opening venture, after comparing the demographics of SpaceX and the FAA.
The research project focused on how workforce demographics and norms are changing with successive generations, especially those freshly graduated from high school and college/university systems. The project is being accomplished in the context of rapid advances in technology that favor learning and communication. It takes into consideration those societal drivers that younger demographics are accustomed to operating within but can be challenging to established workforces. Understanding the nexus of a changing workforce and accelerating technology is a key aspect to developing an innovative training roadmap, and connecting the FAA Academy to the workforce of the future.
The workforce research was divided up to fit within individual college semesters, (about 14 weeks). One of the benefits of this capstone partnership with the Price College of Business is how the FAA was able to structure the research to cumulatively build on top of the preceding semesters. So, when new student teams begin at the start of the semester, they will be building upon the work of students prior to them. This means, they get to springboard off of past work, giving them a running start, which dramatically reduces the amount of time to start the project.
The first capstone project was launched during the global health crisis and the first semester of research at OU was done with students back on campus. This allowed FAA personnel to interact with student teams according to FAA and University health protocols. This approach eventually transformed into more in-person team meetings, as COVID protocols changed during spring and fall semesters of 2022.
To date, approximately 50 students have worked on FAA research during the past three semesters. Graduate and undergraduate students from the University of Oklahoma worked the research project as if it was a real-world scenario. In fact, this is as real as it gets, because the nature of the project involved a true client/partner relationship. The student teams generated a Statement of Work at the beginning of the semester, delivered a presentation for client buy-in, and then spent the rest of the semester compiling research data to create a final presentation of reports to be provided at the end of the semester. All this is done under the guidance of university faculty.
Developing a Statement of Work at the beginning of each semester becomes an important measuring stick for evaluation done by the FAA Academy and Price College of Business. So far, the effort has been a total success for all involved. The quality of research generated from the student team is very high, while producing some surprising results. The high-visibility nature of the research has led to multiple job offers for students from various corporations.
"The capstone research effort with the University of Oklahoma is truly one of the most rewarding parts of my federal career," says Michael Coffman of the FAA Academy’s Training Services Support Division. "Working with highly motivated students to tackle real world problems is an amazing experience that will open your eyes to a new world of communication, technology, and different ways to approach challenges. Just having the opportunity to work with such highly organized students will generate benefits for participating organizations through team interaction alone; not to mention the quality of research that these types of efforts are capable of generating. One thing we have learned during the first three semesters of workforce research is that student teams perform at higher levels, the more you invest in them. Spending time with the teams to ensure the scope of effort, the mission of the FAA, and the needed resources are obtained, will take you a long way towards a rewarding and successful effort," explains Coffman.
The success of the first semester paved the way for the follow-on research during spring of 2022 and now into the fall semester of 2022. The Price College of Business has become a great business partner and the FAA Academy is looking forward to continuing their research efforts with them in the coming years.
If you or your organization are interested in starting a capstone project with a university, please contact Edward Drake at (405)954-7327.
