No. of Recommendations: 10
They've been hiring mainstream and reaching out for diversity for some time Mike. Even your pretending they aren't reaching out to mainstream is nothing new. But this report says "Of that number, 16,000 individuals or 57 percent successfully completed the program, 33 percent did not pass, and 10 percent left the program for other reasons." And they were doing DEI back then. If you get a chance you have to complete the program. It doesn't look like they have a problem because we've been doing well for some time.
In 2007, the anticipated retirement wave began, and we project that retirements will continue to hit record numbers in 2008 and 2009. While our historical hiring goal was a “one-for-one” model (one new hire for every one retirement), beginning in 2004, we increased our hiring requests to prepare for the anticipated retirements in the next decade. Our strategic hiring plan took into account both projected retirements as well as expected attrition in new hires. From 2008-2017, we plan to hire approximately 17,000 new air traffic controllers.
To achieve these ambitious goals, the FAA has been recruiting aggressively. In addition to our more traditional vacancy announcements to recruit from the general public, retired military controllers, eligible veterans, and current and former civilian air traffic controllers, we have been using major Internet outlets such as Careerbuilder.com, Monster.com, and CraigsList, as well as the social/professional networking site, LinkedIn. We have participated in military job fairs across the country, as well as advertised in USA Today and Aviation Week & Space Technology.
In an effort to recruit more women and minorities, we have also advertised in special interest newspapers and magazines, such as Native American Times, Asian Week, Latina, and Minority Careers. The FAA has also participated in the NAACP Diversity Job Fair, the Congressional Black Caucus Diversity Job Fair, and the League of United Latin American Citizens Job Fair in FY 2007. Additionally, our joint effort with the Department of Veterans Affairs enables veterans with disabilities to take advantage of on-the-job training opportunities through FAA’s new Veterans’ Employment Program. This initiative allows veterans with disabilities to train for air traffic control and airway transportation systems specialist positions.
In October 2007, the FAA chose an additional nine colleges and universities to be part of the Air Traffic Collegiate Training Initiative (AT-CTI) program, which brings the number of schools currently in the program to 23. We plan to continue to offer the opportunity to other schools to apply to the program. This partnership between the FAA and the colleges and universities in the AT-CTI program will contribute to meeting air traffic controller hiring goals in the coming years. This is a hiring source of growing significance for the controller workforce.
