Workforce Readiness of New Graduates with Airport Management Degrees

This research focuses on entry-level career preparedness of new college graduates with airport management degrees. The main question this research pursues to answer is: what do airport; managers seek in an airport operations specialist candidate? Additionally, the purpose was to discover if there were any deficiencies preparing airport management students for a career as an airport operations specialist. The setting for this research was spread out among multiple states and times zones to interview five airport management participants. A semi-structured interview protocol was used to gather data which was later transcribed and analyzed along with observations and researcher's journal. To evaluate higher education programs, four aviation management course catalogs were compared to determine the content delivered to the airport management population. The data indicates students possess the basic knowledge and skill requirements for the occupation, but what is more surprising is the importance of organizational fit during the interview process. Moreover, higher education does not deliver content related to organizational fit, creating a void and opportunity for improvement. While this study only included the input of four airports, it could be adapted on a national scale.