The Georgia Institute of Technology ranks as one of the aerospace and defense industries’ top sources for workforce recruiting, according to the 2010 Aviation Week Workforce Study.  Moving up to No. 2 from last year’s No. 4 position, Georgia Tech was selected based on academic reputation coupled with the success of previous hires by organizations ranging from the Boeing Co. to Raytheon.

Aviation Week, the largest information and services provider to defense, space and business communities, initiated the workforce review in 1997 to share information about compensation and job/career opportunities across the aerospace and defense industries in the United States.

Tech’s stellar cooperative education and engineering internship programs play a key role in this ranking, according to Georgia Tech’s Dean of Engineering Don Giddens.

“We place approximately 25 percent of our students in co-op positions during the course of their studies,” Giddens said. “This provides our students with critical hands-on experience as well as financial support.”

Giddens also noted that research labs and design projects emphasizing teamwork integrated throughout the curriculum, as well as a faculty who are heavily engaged in industry- sponsored research, also helped better prepare Georgia Tech students for the workforce.

Not only is Georgia Tech a go to source for aerospace and defense employers, but the Institute’s Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering undergraduate program also ranked No. 2 in the 2011 edition of America’s Best Colleges by U.S. News & World Report while the graduate program ranked No. 4.

For more information on Georgia Tech’s School of Aerospace Engineering and other programs, visit http://www.coe.gatech.edu/.