Bombardier fuels demand for skilled workers
Published Saturday August 30th, 2008
C series New project will require company to hire at least 3,500 people
Fannie Jacques says it's a great time for anyone considering a career in the aerospace industry.
As human resources director for Bombardier's new family of commercial aircraft, the C Series, which will go into production in 2011, Jacques knows her employer will need a lot of skilled workers in the next few years.
"Our manpower numbers will evolve, but at peak, we'll be at 3,500 people," Jacques said.
That's good news for anyone who's been pondering a career in the skilled trades. And Jacques hopes anyone at a career crossroads right now will take heed and start investigating programs in local vocational schools.
"We'll really see momentum in the first quarter of 2011," she said. "We'll initiate recruitment by January 2011."
Between now and then, she added, the company will be hiring engineers to design the C Series: aircraft of between 100 and 150 seats.
"Our prime focus now is on engineering," Jacques said. "We'll need about 1,000 engineers and other professionals."
The remainder of the C Series workforce will comprise skilled trades who will come on board once production ramps up, she said.
Manpower has been tight in the aerospace sector in recent years. The industry contracted slightly after the terrorist attacks in 2001.
"There were 42,000 people in the industry in Quebec and that fell to 38,000 in the wake of 9/11," said Serge Tremblay, executive director of the Centre for Aerospace Manpower Activities in Quebec.
"Up until 9/11, we were growing. By 2005, most of the employees who lost jobs had been recalled and growth started again."
Check out the following websites for information about Montreal's aerospace industry and its need for workers: camaq.org, careers.bombardier.com, college-cm.qc.ca and emam.ca
But by then, young career aspirants were veering away from the sector and not enrolling in vocational programs. Josee Peloquin, director of the Montreal Trade School in Aerospace, says enrolment in her school's programs is just beginning to come back.
During the year prior to the terrorist attacks, some 1,200 students were studying aeronautical trades at the school. Enrolment plummeted as the airline industry contracted.
"Last year, we had 600 students but, this year, we're up to 750," Peloquin said.
The school trains machinists, mechanical and structural workers and those who install wiring for the aerospace industry.
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"And there's a large demand for them," Peloquin said. "Every week, businesses come to look for workers at our school."
There's also demand for CEGEP level graduates. At the Ecole Nationale d'Aerotechnique, which is part of CEGEP Edouard Montpetit and is the largest aerotechnical school in North America, students are trained in aircraft maintenance, construction and avionics (aerospace electronics).
In 2001, said the school's director general, Serge Brasset, some 1,500 students were enrolled in programs that would lead to careers in the aerospace industry. That dropped to 500 in 2003-04 following the crisis in the airline industry.
In recent years, however, there's been an aggressive campaign to boost enrolments.
"Our people visited all the high schools in the Montreal area to show students that this industry is very dynamic," Brasset said.
The message is getting through. Last year, the college had 715 students and so far, some 884 have registered for the coming academic year.
The dynamism in Montreal's aerospace sector is not just at Bombardier, say those in the know.
"Bombardier is the flagship in the industry in Montreal, but other companies - Bell Helicopter and CAE, for instance - are also doing well," Brasset said.
There are 221 aerospace companies in Montreal, representing 60 per cent of Canada's aerospace industry. And of the 47,451 people employed in aerospace, 20,000 are skilled workers, 10,000 are technicians, 12,000 are engineers and 6,000 work in administration.
"The skilled trades make up the largest part of that workforce," Tremblay said. "It's not just a rocket science industry. It's still a labour-intensive industry."
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Unlike other sectors of the economy in which the exit of the baby boom cohort is causing a severe dearth of manpower, that's not a problem in the aerospace sector, Tremblay said, where the average age, at 40.8 years, is lower than in other industries.
Meanwhile at Bombardier, there's a buzz about the C Series, said Jacques, who is preparing to take her team to career fairs and schools in the coming two months to spread the word that the company needs skilled workers.
While workers in the skilled trades will be hired in earnest for the C Series by early 2011, she said, the company currently has 630 job openings in Montreal for its other projects.
"Most are in the engineering and financial field, but we do have 100 production (skilled trades) jobs that need to be filled," she said.
While the company wants employees with solid technical skills, Jacques said, it's also looking for "people who have a passion for our industry. We want people who can adapt and work on a team. They also need communications skills."
And it will need a lot of those people in the years to come.
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