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Mid-Canada Mod Center (MC2) is pleased to announce that it is working co-operatively with Centennial College in Toronto, Ont. to provide first-hand experience to avionics students through a job-shadowing program.
Centennial’s Aviation Technician – Avionics Maintenance program is offered under the college’s School of Transportation and is a full Ontario College Diploma Post-secondary program lasting two years (four semesters). This program provides students with the knowledge and skills to start their career as an aircraft maintenance engineer. The program is Transport Canada (TC) accredited for experience and exam credit towards the issuance of an AME license; and is accredited by the Canadian Council of Aviation & Aerospace (CCAA) as meeting the national occupational standard for avionics maintenance training.
A creative and forward thinking part of the course of study involves students going into the “field” and gaining experience by shadowing avionics technicians who currently work for service providers in the industry. As case in point, two of Centennial’s students are currently “shadowing” at MC2 once a week from February through to April. During this work experience, the students are given the opportunity to become part of a professional avionics maintenance operation and get a real taste for the job. While every such opportunity has its own agenda, MC2 ensures that their assigned students do more than simply observe.
According to Bill Arsenault – VP of MC2, “We believe the best experience is by actually doing something – not just observing. And I feel strongly about working with the education community to help our future possible employees. When the Centennial Avionics students come to us each day, we make sure they participate with us in different aspects of the job and gain hands-on, fully supervised experience. Our team is more than happy to share their knowledge and offer the chance to take the theories garnered from the classroom and see how to apply them in the real time aviation environment. I feel this approach will bring us the opportunity to hire good people down the road who know us and vice versa. It’s also good to be giving back – even with a small gesture like this. We really enjoy having the students with us. ”
“We are grateful to each of our participating industry partners for their continued support of the program in making these opportunities possible,” states Lan Wong – the Centennial College faculty member responsible for the job-shadowing program for all avionics students. “It is an extremely important first step for our students into the industry, allowing them to gain valuable real world experience as part of their training. Mid-Canada Mod Centre has been incredibly supportive in offering job shadowing placements to selected senior avionics students year after year, and their genuine interest in expanding the scope of training for our students is invaluable. These are busy people in this industry who continuously invest their time and resources in building a strong aviation community by reaching out to students, and they make a very real difference.”
