Northwest Aerospace News December | January Issue No. 12 | Page 26

C
ore Plus was launched in 2015 with a 900,000 thou-
sand dollar allocation from the Washington Legislature, and
eight initial schools. Now there are more than 40 schools
involved, each having received 75,000 thousand dollars in
state money to buy equipment and materials and to train
instructors.
It is a curriculum approved by Washington’s Office of
Superintendent of Public Instruction. It consists of math,
science and vocational education components that fulfill
requirements for a high school diploma and can be applied
toward college admission.
“You can take a Core Plus class and it meets all the stan-
dards and rigor for a third-year math class,” Garrettson
said. “You’re meeting all your graduation requirements and
getting all the credits you need.”
Juniors and seniors spend about half of each school day in
their Core Plus class. They start in the fall with classroom
lessons that cover the math, metallurgy, physics and safety
knowledge they’ll need to work as aircraft assemblers or
parts fabricators. As the year moves on, they begin spending
less time in the classroom and more time in the shop, where
they learn the industry’s fundamental skills.
Second-year students get more specific training in fields like
composites manufacturing. In all, students are getting more
than 1,000 hours of relevant industry training during their
high school years.
The classes teach the basic skills that Boeing wants its new
hires to have when they come into the factory, which gives
them a big competitive advantage when applying for aero-
space industry jobs at Boeing or any one of its suppliers.
This year, there are 40 schools taking part and roughly
2,900 students are enrolled. Most of them are “up and down
the I-5 corridor,” said Garrettson, but students also area
learning to build aerospace parts in places like Spokane and
West Valley High School in Yakima.
Since the program launched, Boeing itself has hired some
600 high school graduates into its touch-labor workforce,
to fill jobs as structures mechanics, assemblers and in-tank
mechanics.
More students have landed jobs at companies in the supply
chain, or have gone on to college to study for a four-year
aerospace engineering degree.
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NORTHWEST AEROSPACE NEWS