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State pushes for focus on skills they require
By Robert Weisman, Globe Staff | June 27, 2006
Prodded by state government officials fearful of alienating a key Massachusetts industry, nine Bay State colleges and universities have agreed to adapt their engineering curriculums, and in some cases introduce new courses, to meet the needs of defense contractors.
The new focus will be on skills that have become increasingly important to the state's makers of high-tech weapons systems but are in short supply in the job market: radio frequency engineering, systems engineering and integration, defense contract management, and specialized design for products used in combat .
These were fields identified by military suppliers who have met in the past year with Ranch C. Kimball , the Massachusetts secretary of economic development, and with representatives of the Massachusetts Defense Technology Initiative, a group formed to capitalize on the momentum of the business and government coalition that successfully lobbied last year to save a pair of military research sites in the state.
The sites, Hanscom Air Force Base in Bedford and the Army's Soldier Systems Center in Natick, which manage contracts with private businesses in Massachusetts and elsewhere, were threatened with closure under a Pentagon plan for base realignment. But their state supporters argued they were critical to the Boston area brainpower that has designed advanced weaponry for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
With companies like Procter & Gamble cutting jobs in Massachusetts, and others like Fidelity Investments expanding out of state, the Romney administration has been under pressure to shore up technology-oriented sectors of the economy. One is the defense industry, which employs 85,000 people in the state.
``Our academic sector has never really looked toward our defense sector," Kimball said . ``There's been no channel. But our defense companies have told us they could be more competitive and add more jobs here if they could meet their workforce needs."
Under a program called Massachusetts Business Connect, launched last February, the state officials met with more than 50 defense contractors and conducted in-depth ``needs assessments" with four: BAE Systems in Lexington, Lockheed Martin Sippican in Marion, Textron Systems in Wilmington, and Dynamics Research in Andover. The program will be extended to biotechnology and other business sectors.
The defense firms recently hosted visits to their labs and assembly lines by representatives of the University of Massachusetts, Boston University, Northeastern University, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Wentworth Institute of Technology, Bunker Hill Community College, Northern Essex Community College, Middlesex Community College, and Cape Cod Community College, schools the state officials had lined up to take part in the first phase of the ``connect" program.
During those visits, the defense contractors detailed the jobs they were having the most trouble filling. And in a meeting at Mitre Corp. in Bedford Thursday, the nine schools outlined their engineering offerings and, in many cases, presented plans to revise their curriculums to address contractor needs. The training programs will be offered on campuses, at company sites, and online, and will serve both students and defense workers.
WPI, for example, will be launching two new courses in radio frequency engineering, one starting this fall, to fit the requirements of contractors that design complex aviation, space, and underwater systems. The institute also will be designing an introductory course in systems engineering, the discipline that integrates electrical, mechanical, and other engineering work on defense projects.
While such courses will be an extension of the electrical engineering programs WPI has been offering -- the top recruiter of its students is Raytheon Co. -- they will be more tailored to specific applications cited by the contractors, said Stephen P. Flavin , dean of corporate and professional education at WPI.
``For whatever reason, the companies did not believe the resources resided in-state for some of their educational and training needs," Flavin said.
UMass Amherst, meanwhile, has deputized Kelly Aiken as outreach director of workforce development, a new job, to strengthen its ties to businesses. Aiken said part of her job is making sure defense companies are aware of programs UMass already offers, such as a master's in electrical engineering focused on microwave and radio frequency. ``It's as much about us introducing them to existing resources as it is tailoring programs to their needs," Aiken said. But she said UMass offerings could be improved based on company feedback.
Suzanne K. Daniels , business development director for BAE Systems' infrared imaging systems unit in Lexington, said her company's new hires often have general backgrounds in electrical engineering but not the kind of systems engineering skills that enable them to coordinate complicated projects like the company's night-vision systems mounted on Army M16 rifles. ``We were finding we didn't have the depth coming out of the general disciplines," Daniels said.
Similarly, at Lockheed Martin Sippican in Marion, there was a clamor for radio frequency expertise vital to the countermeasure systems the Lockheed division develops to help the Navy thwart missile attacks at sea, and for expertise in managing defense contracts with the Pentagon and other countries. ``We want to take on people who already have some of these skills and provide enhanced training for them," said Seamus Hastings , the division's human resources manager.
Robert Weisman can be reached at weisman@globe.com.
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