Tinker Air Force Base, with more than 24,000 civilian and military personnel assigned to the base, is partnering with the Oklahoma CareerTech system and several higher education institutions to solve an impending worker shortage. Tinker's largest organization is the Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center, one of three depot repair centers in the Air Force Materiel Command. The ALC is the worldwide manager for a wide range of aircraft, engines, missiles, software and avionics and accessories components. Altheda Anderson, chief of the Education and Training Partnership Program Office at Tinker, said that the base is faced with an aging work force, many hired in the Vietnam era.
	"The average age of a Tinker worker is 46," she said. "And in the next seven years we could lose 46 percent of our work force through retirement. That is a significant loss." Tinker officials realized they needed to ramp up their training and recruitment of younger workers to help cope with the retirements that will occur over the next few years, Anderson said. This realization lead to the Tinker Education Partnership Agreement signed last year by Maj. Gen. Charles Johnson II, Tinker's Installation commander; Robert Conner, executive director of Tinker's Air Logistics Center, Gov. Frank Keating, Sandy Garrett, state superintendent of public instruction; Dr. Hans Brisch, chancellor of the State Regents for Higher Education, and Dr. Ann Benson, state CareerTech director. Tinker already has a long-standing relationship with the CareerTech system. The Tinker Vocational Training Center has trained more than 40,000 civilian employees since it was established in 1980, according to Director David Williams. Since 1996, the Tinker Center has been a Mid-Del Technonolgy Center satellite campus offering more than 60 courses, and continually developing new programs to meet Tinker's needs. That is why Tinker has been recognized as a CareerTech Business Champion. A Business Champion is an Oklahoma business or industry that attributes much of its economic success to the partnerships it has formed with the local technology center or high school CareerTech program. Althea Anderson According to Anderson, Tinker officials partnered with CareerTech officials to design curriculum around the skill-based jobs needed at the base. Anderson said Tinker will need to hire about 3,400 new skilled workers over the next six years in areas such as aircraft mechanic, sheet metal worker, aircraft mechanic parts repair, aircraft engine mechanic, pneumatic systems, machine tool operator, and jet engine mechanic. "CareerTech officials worked out the templates for all these areas. The training is done at the technology centers and then we hire the graduates," Anderson said. Tinker officials decided to partner with the CareerTech system because of its experience with working with industry. "It was a very easy transition because many of the CareerTech instructors had trained on similar systems," Anderson said. "We also found that CareerTech had programs close to what we needed and had trained workers for area businesses and aircraft manufacturers." Tinker is collaborating with several other area technology centers, as well as Mid-Del, including: Metro Technology Centers, Oklahoma City; Canadian Valley Technology Center, El Reno; Gordon Cooper Technology Center, Shawnee; Francis Tuttle; Eastern Oklahoma County Technology Center, Choctaw; and Moore Norman Technology Center. Anderson is confident the partnership will include collaboration with other technology centers which have specialized areas of training. Demand is so great for skilled workers at Tinker that some students are hired while they are still doing their internships. Because of that, Tinker has geared up its marketing efforts to let young people know about the many jobs that are available at the base. "There is a lot of opportunity for a young person to move up here," Anderson said. And, students may earn college credit for their CareerTech courses, according to Anderson. This is possible through cooperative agreements between technology centers and institutions of higher education. Related Links Tinker Air Force Base Mid-Del Technonolgy Center
	posted 5/9/2002 Photographs courtesy of Tinker Air Force Base.	Story by: Manny Otiko Communications & Marketing Email: motik@okcareertech.org

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