GE Aerospace Foundation puts $1 million into training aerospace workers across Dallas-Fort Worth

The charitable arm of jet engine maker GE Aerospace plans to spend $1 million on aerospace job training in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, The Dallas Morning News reported Thursday.

The money from the GE Aerospace Foundation will go to four local partners beginning next year, with the aim of giving students more hands-on training and tightening links between schools and the aerospace industry. In all, the first-year grants are expected to support training for more than 1,100 people.

Where the money goes

According to the Morning News, the grants will:

• pay for additional instructors in several aerospace programs at Dallas College;
• help Tarrant County College expand its aviation maintenance technician labs;
• support the Manufacturing Institute's Heroes MAKE America program, which helps veterans move into civilian careers;
• help Dallas nonprofit Big Thought recruit more students into manufacturing training.

The grants are part of Lifting Futures, the foundation's workforce program, which has a goal of training 10,000 aerospace workers by 2030. The foundation was started in 2024.

Why North Texas

GE Aerospace announced the investment Wednesday at an event hosted by Axios at the Henry B. Tippie National Aviation Education Center near Dallas Executive Airport.

The company said it met over the summer with more than 30 organizations and concluded that the region's aerospace manufacturing sector was at an "inflection point," citing growing demand, limited awareness of career options and uneven coordination among groups that train workers.

Christian Meisner, GE Aerospace's chief human resources officer and chair of the foundation, said at the event that the goal is to help the whole industry and not only GE. He said smaller suppliers in particular need help, adding that the company is "only as good as" the suppliers that make its parts.

The region is home to American Airlines and Southwest Airlines, two major airports and other aviation companies such as Bell Textron, the newspaper noted.

Sources

The Dallas Morning News