The Biggest Little City boasted a rate of more than 61% of people aged 25 or older having bachelor’s degrees, the fourth highest among the top 10 cities in the list by financial advice site Forbes Advisor.

The rankings — looked at the 100 largest U.S. cities by population. The analysis used data from sources such as the National Center of Education Studies, the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Census Bureau. More than a quarter of Reno residents age 25 and older also had graduate degrees.

Brian Sandoval, president of the University of Nevada, Reno, credited efforts by the community and its partners to match the region’s education with the needs of the new Nevada economy.

Sandoval was the governor when the area scored one of its biggest economic development wins and successfully landed Tesla’s first Gigafactory at the Tahoe Reno Industrial Center in Storey County.

“This has included ensuring that the new tech-based industries in Northern Nevada look to our graduates as one of the important resources for their future success.”

The arrival of companies such as Google, which pledged to invest even more in its Northern Nevada operations, combined with the continued expansion of local companies such as Redwood Materials also led to an influx of skilled workers in the Reno area.

The Northern Nevada business climate has not only changed in the last 20 years; it’s transformed into an entirely new economy — for the better, in many ways. 

This new economy includes the full-cycle lithium battery loop: Nevada is the only place in the U.S. where every step of a lithium battery’s lifecycle takes place — mining, manufacturing, distribution, dead cell collection and recycling. We have been a logistics hub for decades, and now we host numerous large U.S. product-distribution centers, including those of Amazon, Tire Rack and Walmart. Nevada is a pioneer in autonomous vehicle testing and operations, due to the Federal Aviation Administration designation years ago as an official drone development location. There are other vertical markets with startups in many diverse sectors now, too.

Amid these developments, the Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC), headquartered in Sparks, has steadily climbed as a market leader in the aerospace and defense industries, and is now the largest privately held defense contractor in the world.

It recently announced that the “Dream Chaser,” the latest shuttle for NASA, is close to reality after many years of development. In April, the company also won the contract for the next-generation “Doomsday” plane for the Department of Defense. It’s due to replace the current Boeing plane that is designed to stay aloft through a nuclear disaster.

Eren and Fatih Ozmen, owners of the global aerospace and national security company Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC), recently announced a $1.13 million gift to the University of Nevada, Reno to launch an Aerospace and Defense Academy.

The Academy will support the development of a skilled workforce and foster small business growth for the aerospace and defense (A&D) industry. The Academy will be housed under the Ozmen Center for Entrepreneurship in the College of Business.

“I am thrilled to continue to support small businesses and entrepreneurs in unique ways,” said Eren Ozmen. “Fatih and I have always been committed to paying it forward to the next generation, and establishing this academy to build a formal infrastructure to support future entrepreneurs is a dream come true.”

The Aerospace and Defense Academy will support both workforce and small business development. The Academy will develop resources and business platforms to aid small and woman-owned businesses looking to support the A&D industry.

Additionally, the Academy will help build a strong workforce by inspiring new career paths in A&D through programming like high school outreach initiatives and a focused micro-credential program. The three-year pilot program is in development and will include a mix of in-person and virtual classes.

“The Aerospace and Defense Academy will help address the growing workforce gap of skilled individuals in the aerospace and defense industry, as well as develop new, qualified, small businesses to support the Department of Defense,” said Brian Sandoval, president of the University of Nevada, Reno.

Ozmen Center executive director Mehmet Tosun, , mentioned that the Ozmens have discussed how difficult it is to navigate government rules and regulations, and to gain the qualifications necessary to get into government procurement and contracting.

So one of the programs will create credentialed technical certifications in defense and aerospace. This will also help SNC train and hire locally through UNR, creating a friendlier environment for aero-defense tech development, as well as a pipeline for other defense contractors. 

It sounds a lot like aerospace ecosystem development is coming to Nevada in the next few years in a formidable way. This is great for our economy. It’s great for our schools, kids and universities.

With many business-support organizations in the area, and with the university and the business climate expanding, the new Aerospace and Defense Academy is another flag flying high for the Reno/Sparks area.