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“Our government is on a mission to help people find meaningful and well-paying jobs close to home,” said David Piccini, Minister of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development. “I am proud to invest in programs like this, which will give a much-needed boost to the aviation industry and prepare the next-generation of workers for these exciting careers.”
Flightline Training Services and Amped Up Aviation have been awarded a grant from the Ontario Government Skills Development Fund to deploy their Ontario Aviation Revitalization Project (OARP), which will help the aviation industry in Ontario recover from the effects of the pandemic.
Phyl Durdey, chief executive officer, said: “We are very proud to announce that we have received this grant to support the Ontario operators, and to promote the aircraft maintenance profession and aviation skilled trades.”
The OARP project has four levels of support: Pandemic relief, recruitment, courseware development and virtual reality.
The goal of the pandemic relief initiative is to help kick start the industry as it recovers from the devastating effects of the pandemic by way of tuition subsidies. All eligible Ontario based aviation businesses can receive a 30 per cent discount on their Flightline training programs.
A recruitment initiative will promote the highly skilled trades in the aviation industry. Flightline, along with Amped Up Aviation, will be travelling throughout Ontario to visit high schools and job fairs to generate interest in aircraft maintenance using VR technology.
The courseware development initiative will lead to permanent improvements in technology and overall product quality, thus providing for a better learning experience.
Amped Up Aviation will be developing a youth-targeted aviation program as a precursor to an Aircraft Maintenance Engineer Apprenticeship.
Gail Richardson, the founder of Amped Up, said: “We need to expose this career path to the next generations. The workforce shortages are suffering because this career currently lives in an ‘invisible gap’ as it is technically not a ‘skilled trade’, but a profession.”
As virtual reality is the way of the future in training, Flightline will be further
developing its VR aircraft for a more immersive learning experience.”
According to Transport Canada data, there were 17,662 active AME license holders living in Canada as of June 26, 2019. Half of them (8,762) are currently above age 50. Of those, just over 50 per cent are above age 60.
Founded in 2001, this Brampton-based company has established a worldwide reputation for excellence. Currently serving over 165 customers in 65 countries on 55 aircraft types. Durdey also added that: “We are happy that we can help restart the aviation industry with the help of the Skills Development Fund, and working with Amped Up will allow us to promote the skilled aviation trades which is desperately needed.”
Flightline Training Services has earned a respected position as a provider of quality maintenance training in a technically demanding industry, and Amped Up is laser focused on promoting the skilled trades in aviation to the next generations.
Durdey summed it up by saying: “We are proud of the opportunity we have been given, and we hope that this initiative will allow us to demonstrate our passion for the aviation industry.”
This press release was prepared and distributed by Flightline Training Services.
