Building the Aerospace Workforce, Region by Region, with Community Partners

Lifting Futures, the GE Aerospace Foundation's flagship workforce program, is partnering with local organizations in its first three U.S. communities to train people and help grow the aerospace workforce.

In its inaugural year, the GE Aerospace Foundation, through Lifting Futures, is supporting local partners in Dallas-Fort Worth, Southwest Ohio and Alabama's I-85 corridor. Together, they will add training capacity, build awareness of aerospace careers, and strengthen coordination across each region. These partners are the first of many, as the program aims to train 10,000 workers across multiple communities by 2030, building a stronger workforce for the entire aerospace industry.

Christian Meisner, Chief Human Resources Officer at GE Aerospace and Chair of the GE Aerospace Foundation, shared the news at "Aerospace's Workforce Moment," an Axios event in Dallas-Fort Worth. "We're working with great partners who are already doing very important work," he said. "This is about lifting up the whole industry, and in the end, this is good news for all."

In Dallas-Fort Worth, four partners will help train more than 1,100 people, including many veterans: Dallas College, Tarrant County College, The Manufacturing Institute's Heroes MAKE America and Big Thought. Their work will expand training capacity, introduce more students to aerospace careers and help veterans turn their military experience into civilian aerospace careers.

"Outreach is important because it gives more doorways for people to be able to get interested, learn about it, get a foot in the door," said Reagan Brownfield, a Tarrant County College student. "Without that outreach, I probably wouldn't be here."

Local partners are leading the way in other regions, too. In Southwest Ohio, Sinclair College, Hobart Institute of Welding Technology and the Talent Collaborative of Greater Cincinnati will expand training, welcome more students and connect organizations across the region, benefiting roughly 200 workers.

Along Alabama's I-85 corridor, Southern Union State Community College, the Industrial Development Board of the City of Auburn and the Montgomery Regional Chamber of Commerce will launch new training, promote career opportunities and grow the regional talent pipeline, benefiting more than 400 people.

"We think of this as a three-legged stool: industry, government and education," Meisner said. "Our education partners are where this all comes together."

Building the workforce also means inspiring the next generation. Lifting Futures will provide Let's Go Aerospace magazine subscriptions to public middle school libraries in select areas of each region, helping students see aerospace as a future they can build.

Since becoming a standalone company in 2024, GE Aerospace and its Foundation have supported more than 20 workforce programs that have helped nearly 10,000 individuals.

Learn more at liftingfutures.org.