Aviation training programs soar.

THE SLUGGISH ECONOMY HASN'T grounded aviation training programs at Arkansas community colleges.

In the next three years, community colleges are expected to turn out at least 900 students with Federal Aviation Administration-approved certificates to work on aircraft, said Steve Lease, director of work force training at the Arkansas Association of Two-Year Colleges.

"We conservatively estimated that," Lease said. "We will at least double that and maybe more."

In 2007, nine community colleges created an Aerospace Training Consortium to increase the number of aviation mechanics. And the consortium seems to be working.

"We used to have 30 to 40 students," said Steve Hotle, director of the aerospace technology center at Pulaski Technical College in North Little" Rock. "This past year, 160 students,, enrolled in our aerospace program.

To expand the aviation training programs at the community colleges, the U.S. Department of Labor recently awarded a grant of $2.9 million to be split among eight of the schools.

Beefing up the aviation programs is good news for several aviation repair companies in Arkansas.

Currently, there are "several hundred" positions open for aircraft mechanics, said Steve Paull, director of aviation maintenance at the University of Arkansas Community College at Batesville.

The schools can't graduate the students fast enough. It takes two years to receive an airframe and powerplant certification, which is necessary to repair and maintain aircraft.

"If someone needs an employee, you can get them in two years," Paull said. "So we have to keep the pipeline going and look downstream."

Broadwing Air Repair LLC of Melbourne should be looking for more employees soon.

Founded in May 2007, the company has jumped from employing three to 40. It is doubling its shop area to 22,000 SF, which is expected to be completed by the end of May, said the company's controller, Chuck Maloney.

"In the next year or so, we could potentially double the number of employees," he said.

To attract even more students to the aviation field, a high school aviation apprenticeship program is being considered, said Robin Pelton, Arkansas Economic Development Commission regional manager. She said she was meeting with companies to see if there is a need for the program and if they will support it. "We have a lot of demand for repair operations in the state," Pelton said.

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Expanding Program

Across the country, there is a shortage of airframe and powerplant mechanics, said Hotle, at Pulaski Tech.

"It never used to be a big demand field," Hotle said.

Most of the airplane mechanics jobs had been filled for years, but now those mechanics are preparing to retire, he said.

And the industry has been growing.

"Right now it's politically incorrect to own a corporate jet," Paull said. But even if companies aren't buying new airplanes, "they're going to have to do something to keep the older ones in the air," said Maloney, of Broadwing Air Repair.

Other aviation companies also have expanded.

In October 2007, American Eagle Airlines of Fort Worth, Texas, announced it was investing $10 million in its maintenance facility at Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport in Benton County.

American Eagle transferred about 75 employees from its Maine facility to the airport, said Andrea Huguely, a spokeswoman for American Eagle.

She said, however, that because of the economy, the facility isn't seeing as much demand for maintenance as the company had projected. A number of American Eagle

flights have been canceled, and a number of its planes have been taken out of service, she said. "Less planes means there's less maintenance," Huguely said.

In October, Aviation Repair Technologies opened a $20 million airframe and engine repair plant at the Arkansas Aeroplex in Blytheville. The company said then that it planned to have 310 employees within three years. Aviation Repair didn't return a call for comment last week.

Pulaski Tech also is expanding its aviation program.

In March 2008, the college received a $1.5 million grant from the Department of Labor to train more aerospace workers. The money will be used for everything from more equipment to scholarships, Hotle said.

Construction work is also wrapping up on the aviation center's 25,000-SF addition, which is expected to be ready for students in August.

"We're preparing for an influx [of students] for the next couple of years," Hotle said.

At Southern Arkansas University Tech at Camden, enrollment in the aviation program has increased from around 15 students a few years ago to 24, said Bill Archer, aviation program coordinator at SAU Tech. "We are seeing good demand in this industry," Archer said. "We need these types of skills."

Arkansas' No. 1 export is products tied to the aviation and aerospace industry, according to the Arkansas Economic Development Commission. In 2007, exports from the industry totaled more than $1.14 billion, up 28 percent since 2005, the AEDC said.

"The biggest problem we have is people in the state don't know what big business aviation is," Paull said. But, he said, students are hearing about the program and asking how to enroll.

At Pulaski Tech, tuition for the two-year program is $8,000, Hotle said.

After the students receive their FAA certificates, they can earn between $14 and $20 an hour and max out at about $30 an hour.

Maloney, at Broadwing Air Repair, said the payroll at his company is $1.5 million. He declined to release revenue figures.

Wake-Up Call

When Toyota Motors Corp. announced in February 2007 that it had selected Tupelo, Miss., for its North American vehicle assembly plant, instead of Arkansas, it served as a wake-up call to Arkansas education officials, Lease said.

"At least the perception was that Arkansas' work force was not skilled enough to attract a new plant," said Lease, with the Arkansas Association of Two-Year Colleges.

In 2007, a number of community colleges had aviation programs, but they all operated independently. "Nobody had ever organized us or tried to maximize the value of our assets," Paull said.

So the community colleges with aviation programs formed the consortium.

Now there are 14 colleges and two universities in the program, Lease said.

"It's allowing us to maximize our bang for the buck," Paull said. "We're sharing resources. We're sharing curriculum. We're sharing experiences."

By Mark Friedman

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