James March-April 2024 online - Flipbook - Page 55
s the aviation industry
fully bounces back
from the lean years
of the pandemic,
industry leaders are looking ahead at
what the future demands of a growing
commercial fleet might look like.
According to Boeing’s annual
Commercial Market Outlook, over the
next 20 years 649,000 new pilots,
690,000 new maintenance technicians
and 938,000 new cabin crew members
will be required to fly and maintain the
global commercial fleet.
The companies that don’t take a
long-term approach to filling those
workforce needs will be left behind as
labor challenges mount. Those that
invest in career-development programs
and begin to build out a talent pipeline
that can sustain them in the future
will be the ones who rule the skies in
decades to come.
Here in Georgia one of those pipelines is Delta Air Line’s TechU partnership with Griffin Region College &
Career Academy (GRCCA) and Middle Georgia State University (MGA).
Introduced in January, the partnership
between GRCCA and Delta TechOps
created a new Aviation Maintenance
Program that allows high school
students to begin taking Airframe and
Powerplant courses locally, ensuring a
smooth transition into more advanced
classes at MGA and then straight into
an application to Delta’s renowned TechOps program. It is the airline’s first
partnership with a Georgia College &
Career Academy.
The relationship began last fall,
when GRCCA officials attended the
governor’s Business & Education Summit. One of the panelists was Bill Smith,
Delta TechOps Director of Learning and
Development, giving a presentation on
aviation workforce needs. One short introduction from GRCCA Principal Chad
Pruitt and a visit to GRCCA’s campus
in Griffin later— featuring the first high
school in the state with an on-campus
airplane hangar— and the partnership
was born.
Pruitt spoke glowingly of his
school’s relationship with Delta to
James: “Their (Delta’s) team has
partnered with us to go to each of our
partnering high schools to speak with
students about a career with Delta
TechOps and opportunities available
through the aviation maintenance programs at GRCCA. We lean on business
and industry partners to help us guide
our programs and we aim to prepare
our students with the skills to help
them be successful in the workforce
after graduation. I can’t say enough
about how engaged the Delta team
has been. We look forward to collaborating on future initiatives.”
Students from three different districts in Middle Georgia— Butts, Pike
and Griffin-Spalding County— are eligible to take classes at GRCCA, making
it truly a regional endeavor.
The third piece of the puzzle
is MGA, one of 54 partner schools
selected by Delta— a nod to its acclaimed Airframe and Powerplant
programs. Here in Georgia MGA is the
premier college for aspiring aircraft
maintenance technicians, or AMTs,
workers responsible for ensuring the
safety and reliability of Delta’s 978
mainline aircraft.
MGA’s established relationship
with Delta, (its aviation program also
feeds into the airline’s Propel Pilot
Career Path Program) made it a clean
transition to expand the Aviation Maintenance Program to the high school
level. An MGA professor serves as the
program instructor, ensuring that the
transition to the specialized Airframe
and Powerplant curriculum will be a
smooth one. It also offers the opportunity for students to engage with active industry professionals and gain practical
experience that would be impossible if
stuck strictly in the classroom.
Martin Kehayes, chair of MGA’s
Department of Aviation Maintenance
and Structural Technology, told James
about the relationship between the
two schools. “We’ve had a strong
partnership with GRCCA for about six
years now, ever since they approached
us during their facility renovations to
include aerospace programs,” says
Kehayes. “What began as informal
discussions has transitioned into a
collaborative effort. With the recent
FAA regulations allowing additional
training locations, we saw an opportunity to expand our reach. GRCCA had
already laid the groundwork by establishing a facility for high school-level
aviation education. We’re thrilled
about the potential this partnership
holds for the future, enabling us to
provide our program in an area where
many aviation professionals live and
work but surprisingly lacked aviation
education opportunities.”
GRCCA students enrolled in the
aviation maintenance program will
take five MGA general curriculum
courses that total 16 credit hours. That
means that by the time they graduate
and go to MGA they’ll need just 48
more credits (about a year and a half
worth) to earn their full Airframe and
Powerplant certification and be ready
to enter the workforce.
Patrick Hickey is the James office manager and
one of its staff writers.
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