The Forum

STLCC’s Boeing Pre-Employment Training program will be moving to the newly opened Advanced Manufacturing Center (AMC) on campus. The project promises students who complete the program an interview at Boeing, one of the largest employers in the St. Louis region—and one of the largest weapons manufacturers in the world.

Notably, the program is offered to students at no cost as a result of funding from Boeing St. Louis. The Boeing program has two tracks, each teaching a separate trade vital to the manufacturing of modern aircraft: composites technology and sheet metal assembly.

According to STLCC Chancellor Jeff Pittman, 1,795 students have completed one of the program’s two tracks since it was introduced in 2007. Though the program does not guarantee employment at Boeing, 1,420 of those students have been hired at the aerospace giant after graduating, a nearly 80% placement rate.

Program graduates who are placed in jobs at Boeing will likely go on to work at Boeing manufacturing facilities in the Greater St. Louis area, particularly in North County, where Boeing manufactures not passenger planes, but warplanes and weapons.

Boeing’s defense division, Boeing Defense, Space & Security (BDS), was headquartered in Berkeley less than four miles from the Florissant Valley campus until 2017, and the corporation’s defense arm is still a preeminent player in the local economy. According to the St. Louis Business Journal, as of March 2024, BDS employed 16,681 workers in the St. Louis area, making it the fourth largest employer in the region. At its facility in North County near St. Louis Lambert International Airport, Boeing produces the F-15 lineage. In St. Charles, they build Small Diameter Bombs (SDBs) and kits that turn unguided “dumb” bombs into precision-guided “smart” bombs, called Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAMs).

The F-15 and its variants are operated by a variety of militaries around the world, including the United States, Japan, Saudi Arabia, and Israel. In November 2024, The Israeli government announced a plan to buy 25 new F-15IA fighter jets for a total of $5.2 billion. The aircraft will be built in St. Louis, and constructed in Boeing’s nearby Berkeley complex. Deliveries of the warplanes will begin 2031.

On March 21, 2025, months after the Israel announcement, The Trump administration announced that Boeing had been awarded the contract by the United States Air Force to build their next-generation fighter jet, dubbed the F-47, which they will be manufacturing at a new facility in North County. “The engineering and manufacturing development contract for the F-47 fighter jet will focus on a few planes' engineering and initial production efforts, Pittman said. “The larger-volume production will be awarded in a later contract.” The new F-47 facility is currently under construction off I-170, adjacent to its existing campus at the airport. Construction on the site began in 2023, with an expected completion date of 2026 at a cost of $1.8 billion.

When asked whether it was likely that students who have gone through the Boeing Pre-Employment Training program and employed by Boeing have worked on the F-15 in the past and whether it is likely that students will work on the F-15 or F-47 in the future, Pittman wrote in response, “Boeing determines the placement of its employees on

specific production lines.” Chancellor Pittman defended the Boeing Pre-Employment Training program as well as the importance of Boeing and its defense division to the local economy, calling them a “trusted partner.” He added, “While it's understandable that some may have concerns about encouraging careers in the defense contracting industry, this field is very important for our national security and for developing new technologies. Boeing is a major employer in the St. Louis region, and thousands of people benefit by earning excellent wages to support their families. This, in turn, boosts the regional economy.” 

He added, “In the end, promoting careers in defense contracting is about building a skilled workforce that can tackle modern challenges while maintaining high standards of integrity and responsibility.”