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Orlando Sentinel
By Victor Ocasio
November 1, 2013
Although it wasn’t always in her plans, Elba Tavera, a senior at Pine Ridge High School in Volusia County, now sees a career in simulation as a viable option.
Moving from one interactive session to the next, she and other students who attended a recent symposium at UCF saw firsthand how computer screens, joysticks and software are helping everyone from soldiers in the field to doctors in the emergency room train for high-stress conditions.
“Simulation is going to be a big part of the future — and future careers that we may want to be a part of,” said Tavera.
Comments like hers bring comfort to an industry that’s dealing with an aging workforce.
Hank Okraski, chairman of the education and workforce development committee of the National Center for Simulation, said the situation is dire.
Each year, only 5 percent of the nation’s bachelor’s degrees are in engineering. Projections show that among the nation’s aerospace and defense workers — the same pool of engineers and scientists that power the simulation industry — more than half of all employees will be eligible for retirement by 2020, according to the Aerospace Industries Association.
“We have an aging workforce, and people of my generation and even those in the generation after me are leaving,” said the 77-year-old Okraski, whose association represents more than 200 simulation companies worldwide.
Nearly 30,000 high-tech jobs, with annual salaries averaging $70,000, support the industry’s defense sector in Central Florida Research Park, representing the bulk of the simulation business in Orlando.
“We at NCS are developing the infrastructures and the framework for students to enter into the field,” Okraski said.
“The long pole in the tent is the teacher situation. We need to train teachers in the modeling and simulation and STEM areas,” he said, referring to science, technology, engineering and math.
In 2011, a U.S. Department of Education study estimated that 68.5 percent of middle-school students were being taught math by teachers who had no major or certification in math.
In addition to organizing teacher training, the NCS has developed a four-year high school magnet curriculum with Orange and Seminole counties designed to teach students the basics of simulation. The program is awaiting approval from the state’s Department of Education.
“It will help the whole area if we can bring this about,” said Phillip Tillery, a former teacher of gaming and simulation at Timber Creek High School in Orange County and a member of the NCS task force that’s developing the curriculum.
The symposium for high school students, a partnership event between the Lou Frey Institute of Politics and Government at the University of Central Florida and the NCS, was another of the industry’s initiatives.
Encouraged by experts to pursue STEM educations, 400 middle- and high-school students were given the opportunity to operate simulators created by members of Orlando’s modeling and simulation industry.
“I’m hoping when students go through the curriculum, it will inspire them to go through further courses at the college level,” Tillery said.
vocasio@tribune.com or 407-650-6333
