LAVAL, October 30, 2017 – Aéro Montréal, Québec’s aerospace cluster, today signed a partnership agreement with the Laval Cosmodome, the only museum institution in Canada that is fully devoted to widespread enlightenment on the space sciences. This partnership will raise awareness about careers in aerospace among the 70,000 young people who visit the Cosmodome every year.

Under the agreement, the Laval Cosmodome will become the strategic location for a broader deployment of Aéro Montréal’s Passion from Within and Passion for Flight initiatives. These two programs are designed to provide academic stakeholders – teachers, school guidance counselors, etc. – with tools to interest elementary and high school students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), and in aerospace.

“Our companies are increasingly facing an acute shortage of manpower. Within the next 10 years, aerospace will need to fill more than 30,000 jobs,” says Suzanne M. Benoît, President of Aéro Montréal. “Québec has an exceptional educational infrastructure to train the talents of the future. Our companies are posting jobs every day on AeroPortail.ca and regularly emphasize the importance of encouraging young people to turn to STEM and pursue careers in aerospace.”

Québec has seven universities that offer programs in aerospace engineering. In addition, it is home to the only two internationally recognized specialized schools in Canada: the École nationale d’aérotechnique (ÉNA) and the École des métiers de l’aérospatiale de Montréal (EMAM). The Greater Montréal area has all the required assets to develop a pool of talent that is unique in the world for training the next generation of workforce in aerospace.

“This agreement will enrich the programming offered to schools by the Cosmodome and stimulate interest in careers related to the aerospace industry through an experiential learning approach,” explains Marc DeBlois, General Manager of the Laval Cosmodome.

“There are many programs to train the next generation of workers and their quality is recognized internationally. The needs are clear but it’s increasingly difficult to attract the interest of young people," says Ms. Benoît. The partnership signed today is part of a broader communication campaign aimed at creating widespread awareness at all levels of the education system – high school, college and university – about growing career opportunities in the coming years and thereby secure the future of our industry.

About Aéro Montréal

Created in 2006, Aéro Montréal is a strategic think tank that groups all major decision makers in Québec’s aerospace sector, including companies, educational and research institutions, as well as associations and unions.

Aéro Montréal’s mission is to engage Québec's aerospace cluster with a view to increasing its growth and expansion on the global scene. Its vision is to become the global aerospace reference. To this end, it champions the following values: excellence, commitment, collaboration, integrity, agility and audacity.

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Information:

Gwenaël Brisé

Manager, Communications and Media Relations

Aéro Montréal

Off: 514 987-9395|cell: 438 497-3857

gwenael.brise@aeroMontréal.ca