BRIAN CHILSON
Brooke Goosen joined the Air Force where she works in Aircraft Metals Technology.
When it comes to skilled workers, Arkansas is hiring BY DWAIN HEBDA
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rooke Goosen loves to weld. The 25-year-old discovered welding in her high school’s career development center and was immediately hooked. “They had welding, drafting, automotive, those kind of classes,” Goosen said. “Welding was my passion. I absolutely loved it.”Goosen was fascinated by the craft and spent every minute she could in the shop. She made up her mind welding was what she wanted to do for a career while she was still a freshman. But even at that young age, she could look around and see her options to receive advanced training in her Michigan hometown were limited. And, there was another problem.“I honestly did not want to go to college,” she said. “School for me was not a fun time. My four years of high school, I always had a two-hour block of welding or a two-hour block of automotive. I didn’t want to actually do the whole schooling part; doing those extra classes was like a get-away for me to relax.” Goosen joined the Air Force after learning about the training opportunities that she could get. She landed
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BLUEPRINT | 2017 | ARKANSAS TIMES
at Little Rock Air Force Base in Jacksonville last year. “I initially wanted to be Marines but there, you are a soldier first and then you can be a welder,” she said. “So, I went to the Army, went to the Air Force, went to the Coast Guard even. The Air Force has a job called Aircraft Metals Technology. You do welding and there’s machining. I didn’t know anything about machining, but welding? All right!” Since joining up, she’s performed repair work on military aircraft and even learned additional skills she didn’t even know existed in high school, skills that could translate to big bucks once she returns to civilian life. But that won’t happen for a while; she’s found a home in the service and plans to stay. “When I retire I will be 38, if I retire at 20 years. I’ll still be young,” she said. “I’m going to look for a management degree as my next step because I would personally like to open up a shop after the military. And the military pays for all of your education. It is so fantastic!” She flashes a broad grin at the thought of it.
“Everything worked out perfectly.” _________________________________________ Goosen’s story is what every construction and manufacturing executive, every labor union and every trade association, even Arkansas’ governor would love to see duplicated in high schools from one end of the state to the other. No matter where you look, the need for skilled workers is profound; literally thousands of jobs could be filled overnight if the right people were available, and thousands more jobs will come open over the next 10 years as people retire and companies expand. Randy Zook, president of the Arkansas Chamber of Commerce, pointed out Arkansas is not alone in this problem, which means recruiting workers from other states isn’t the answer. “This problem is national,” he said. “The big driving factor behind a lot of this is just demographics. You’ve got people retiring at the rate of about 10,000 per day,