New York's aerospace and defense strength depends on a steady pipeline of skilled technical workers — one that is increasingly at risk as the current workforce ages and competition for talent intensifies. Effective workforce development does not happen by chance; it must be built deliberately, with education aligned to industry demand from high school through community college and beyond.
Roughly 250 aerospace and defense companies on Long Island employ about 25,000 people. Even modest industry growth of 5% per year requires 1,250 to 1,500 new skilled workers annually — CNC machinists, aircraft structural assemblers, avionics and electronics technicians, quality and compliance specialists, and supply chain professionals. Without a coordinated strategy, we produce graduates without pathways and employers without talent, and New York risks ceding these high-value manufacturing capabilities to states that are actively home-growing their own workforces.
Aerospace and defense manufacturing careers offer high entry-level wages, long-term stability, and six-figure growth potential — without requiring a traditional four-year degree or long-term student debt. Part of our mission is dispelling the notion that a bachelor's degree is the only path to a rewarding career, and showing students, parents, and educators that technical programs can be elite academies for young people with aptitudes in innovation, hands-on problem solving, and advanced manufacturing.
3000 by 30 is a strategic workforce initiative designed to maintain an ongoing enrollment of 3,000 students in aerospace and defense training programs, producing 1,500 workforce-ready graduates per year by 2030. Training is anchored at Suffolk County Community College, Nassau Community College, and SUNY Farmingdale State College, with the final two years of high school aligned through BOCES and CTE programs.
Read the full 3000 by 30 proposal » | Download the white paper (PDF)
We ask New York State to make a dedicated, long-term commitment to aerospace and defense workforce development: capital funding for state-of-the-art training centers, faculty recruitment incentives, student stipends and paid internships, systematic high school outreach, and annual performance benchmarks that keep every program accountable. The model works — Texas A&M's "25 by 25" engineering initiative set out in 2020 to enroll 25,000 students by 2025 and exceeded its goal. New York can and must respond with a similarly ambitious program.