About Santa Noeta Research
Research as the Test, Not the Decoration
SNR is the Consortium’s applied research division. We study what is actually happening before anyone recommends what should happen next.
What We Believe
Most workforce decisions are made first and justified later. SNR exists to reverse that order. Research, done honestly, is the thing that tells you whether a decision was any good before you spend two years finding out the hard way. It is not a credential you attach to a plan you had already settled on.
That conviction shapes what we measure. We are less interested in whether people completed a program or enjoyed it than in whether they can do the work six months later, in real conditions. Completion rates and satisfaction surveys are easy to collect and poor at predicting performance; transfer is harder to measure and is the only thing that matters. We design our studies around it.
How We Work
SNR conducts needs assessments, program evaluations, and longitudinal outcome studies for the Consortium’s workforce initiatives — fieldwork done on the tarmac and in the maintenance bays, not from a conference room. We work in community-based research partnerships, which means the communities whose data we touch hold authority over what is collected, how it is held, and how it is used. Access is negotiated, never assumed.
Our research also examines how credentials signal competence to employers — how well a certificate communicates what a graduate can actually do — because a program that produces capable people whose capability doesn’t register to a hiring manager has solved only half the problem.
On FlyForward
SNR established the baseline workforce needs assessment for the FlyForward retraining initiative and is building the evaluation framework that will measure whether the training transfers — collaboratively with the Design & Performance Improvement division and the region’s community partners. The work is led by Dr. Elena Vance, Director of Research.