Programs to Aid Unemployed Aerospace Professionals: Implications for Mid-Life Career Redirection,

An appraisal of programs to aid unemployed aerospace engineers and scientists constitutes an interesting test of the ability of the private and public sectors of our economy to mount schemes to deal with the problems of involuntary career changers, many of whom fall into the mid-life classification. This article evaluates those items which assess the effectiveness of these programs for their conclusions as to the nature of the relatively successful ones and for the policy implications of these conclusions for programs for mid-life career redirection. This literature is found to, at best, describe the few retraining programs that were successful in enabling former aerospace professionals become reemployed, those which mainly performed information-producing employment services to reduce applicant and employer hiring costs, and laments the fact that, in general, private and public employment agencies did not provide the efficient information services. This article provides explanations for the under-provision of these services.