MTSU Students: Ready to Soar
Middle Tennessee State University keeps a pipeline of skilled talent flowing to Rutherford County's growing industries.
Higher education in Rutherford County is vitally important to the region. According to recent statistics, one in five college graduates in the Nashville region holds a degree from Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro.
Nearly 80% of MTSU students remain in Tennessee after graduation and more than 50% stay within an hour’s drive of Murfreesboro and Nashville. That makes MTSU the top contributor to the region’s workforce – a distinction the university works toward maintaining.
“MTSU plays a vital role in preparing the workforce,” says Mark Byrnes, MTSU provost. “We still have the traditional set of majors that universities have long offered, but we’ve also been intentional about creating majors and developing career pathways that are more closely and obviously tied to workforce needs.”
Examples include degrees in supply chain management, data science, public health, tourism and hospitality, aviation and aerospace, and concrete construction management, among others.
A Concrete Plan for Growth
Major employers in the region, such as SRM Concrete, a homegrown, family-owned company, and McNeilus, a manufacturer of purpose-built commercial vehicles and equipment, are growing and rely on MTSU to help keep a pipeline of talent flowing to the industry.
SRM Concrete, for example, now boasts more than 6,000 team members in 19 states, and McNeilus is in the process of expanding its manufacturing presence in the region. In response, MTSU is growing its School of Concrete and Construction Management with a new, $40 million, 54,000-square-foot learning facility.
The first of its kind in the U.S. and one of the university’s biggest success stories, the Concrete Industry Management program offers cutting-edge research and attracts concrete professionals from around the world to its executive management training program.
“It’s no surprise to anyone that the amount of construction in Middle Tennessee is growing by leaps and bounds, so there is a huge need for people trained in construction and in the manufacturing and use of concrete,” Byrnes says. “We have a school designed to do that where students learn the skills that they need to step right into responsible professional jobs.”
Addressing the Pilot Shortage
MTSU also plays a major role in supplying a much-needed talent base to the aviation and aerospace industries, helping address the national pilot shortage.
“We have about 900 co-pilot majors in our aerospace department,” Byrnes says. “It’s the single largest major at the university, and it’s reflective both of the quality of our program as well as the pressing national need for pilots. We are one of the top four or five aerospace programs in the country, so this is a great opportunity for students who might be interested in the field.”
The Murfreesboro airport is one of the busiest in the state, with corporate travelers and individuals flying in and out from all over the country on a daily basis to conduct business or visit the area for tourism, says Chad Gehrke, airport director of Murfreesboro Municipal Airport.
Several companies are also based here at the airport, creating nearly 500 jobs in the area with a payroll of $31.9 million.
“The airport plays a vital role in our economic development efforts with the City of Murfreesboro,” Gehrke says. “To keep up with that high demand and growth, the airport, the university and its aerospace department must constantly work together to adjust to meet those demands.”
MTSU aerospace students train in state-of-the-art planes with computerized flight decks and gain experience navigating real-world flight scenarios.
Once they’ve completed the program, students are ready not only for opportunities at the Murfreesboro Municipal Airport but also at a host of companies, government agencies and airports across the region.
“The relationships between departments and schools and industry groups tell us what the [workforce] needs are in the region and help us make sure we’re producing graduates that meet those needs,” Byrnes says. “We also have a business and economic research center on campus that does a really good job of tracking what is going on in the regional economy, and that also informs us of what all we should be doing to help meet regional needs.”
Speaking of Airports
Stevens Aerospace & Defense Systems is spreading its wings in Smyrna.
The company opened a new maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) facility at Smyrna Airport in 2023. Stevens now has mechanic technicians at Smyrna Airport who repair, service and inspect aircraft to ensure their safety. Stevens has operated in the Nashville area for nearly 40 years, previously at Nashville International Airport.
Smyrna Airport is the busiest general aviation airport in Tennessee, handling about 100,000 takeoffs and landings annually.
The Stevens MRO facility in Smyrna is housed in a 57,000-square-foot building, and there are provisions for an additional 40,000 square feet of hangar space.
“This new purpose-built facility gives us the space we needed to hire additional technical and support staff and expand our customer base,” said Kenyon Blacker, general manager of the Stevens Aerospace Smyrna facility, in a press release.
Blacker says the Smyrna facility offers all the operational features found at larger airports, but with considerably less congestion. Stevens’ mechanics at Smyrna perform maintenance and avionics work on a wide range of aircraft.
Stevens Aerospace & Defense Systems was founded in 1950 and has MRO operations at Dayton International Airport and Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport.
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