SCHOOLS
There are countless reasons why students choose a career. But they won't choose one that is not on their radar!
In 2019 Ontario had approximately 200 schools listed as having Specialist High Skills Major (SHSM) programs in Transportation, with only a handful listed as having Aviation and Aerospace. There's that "invisible gap" again!
Through connecting with schools offering transportation programs, they are provided with resources to showcase aircraft maintenance as an alternative career path through career days etc. We now also have our own beautiful Boeing 757 (albeit virtual) which students will be able to explore through Oculus headsets.
Industry professionals can be provided as guest speakers, and industry partners are invited to provide hands-on experiences such as co-operative work placements.
Work is in place to create a Pre-Apprenticeship program to familiarize high-school students with the aviation / aerospace world, and the baffling world of acronyms that our industry speaks.... "How to apply an MEL to stop an A/C going AOG".
Industry partners are also approached to provide donations of tooling and other supplies for the schools who have an aviation program.
If you then add in those schools offering engineering or manufacturing.... How can we show so many students the hidden world of aviation and aerospace?
Keep reading to find out!
GIRLS DO, GIRLS CAN (WE ALL CAN)
Did you know that in Canada only 2.8% of Aircraft Maintenance Engineers are female? Shocking!
I guess that these three below are quite elite then!
"Too often little attention is paid to individual talent, instead, education goes on dividing people according to their sex, and putting them in little feminine or masculine pigeonholes ... Girls are shielded and sometimes helped so much that they lose initiative and begin to believe the signs 'Girls don't' and 'Girls can't' which mark their paths... Consequently, it seems almost necessary to evolve different methods of instruction for them when they later take up the same subjects."
- Amelia Earhart
More work needs to be done to show that the aviation industry should not be predominantly male.
And should we be only focused on attracting girls? No. The industry should be for EVERYONE! Diversity is key to opening up a larger pool of professionals.
RURAL COMMUNITIES
Thunder Bay is where academia for Aircraft Maintenance Engineers stops. Just look at the map! A pretty powerful image, right? Six colleges, not one above the red line. That's a lot of Ontario without!
Did you know that 28 of the 34 remote communities in Northern Ontario DO NOT have year-round road access, and they rely on small commercial air carriers for essential services and goods?
Amped Up Aviation, with the support of industry, hopes to help provide access to students to study an aircraft maintenance program to support those communities.
AIRCADEMY
The long-term mission is to create an alliance with support from industry partners to build something as simple as ABCD....an Aviation Based Centre for Discovery, aka the Amped Up "AirCademy".
An interactive learning space where schools can bring students of all ages to ignite an interest in aircraft maintenance (and aviation in general) through age-appropriate, hands-on and technological / VR experiences, as well as getting up close and personal with aircraft.
Why do you think a 4 / 5 year old says they want to become a Police Officer or a Firefighter? Because they absorb new things like a sponge, and they see those shiny vehicles show up to school, get to sit in them, set the siren going.... It could be the same for aviation. But they have to go to the aircraft for obvious logistical reasons. (We don't think schools will have a taxiway!)
* Read more below....
Our founder hosted approximately 150 SHSM (Specialist High Skills Major) Transportation, Engineering and Manufacturing students in groups of 12-15 for a hangar and aircraft tour. When back in the classroom they were polled to ask if following their experience they would consider AME as a career option..... 47% said yes.... 53% said maybe.... NOT ONE said no.
Seeing is believing!
This is why we need the Amped Up AirCademy!