Published 2006/05/04 DARMOUTH: This morning at an aerospace industry forum in Dartmouth, Les Aalders, past Acting Executive Director of the Canadian Aviation Maintenance Council (CAMC), announced the awarding of national accreditation to Nova Scotia Community College’s (NSCC) aircraft maintenance engineering program. CAMC is an all-stakeholder, not-for-profit organization responsible for the human resources strategy for aviation maintenance and aerospace manufacturing in Canada. As the aviation industry's sector council, CAMC champions and encourages initiatives to develop the overall strength and economic well-being of the industry through the development of National Occupational Standards for skilled occupations; professional certification for workers; the development of curriculum standards and accredited programs for training institutions; youth orientation programs; best-of-practice training; retraining, recruitment, and retention strategies for the future. Today’s national accreditation is a positive step for aerospace education. “CAMC accreditation assures industry and students that a program meets or exceeds the national standards in terms of content, administration, resources, faculty and facilities. Accreditation also helps to ensure that graduates of the program are well-prepared and have a solid foundation of knowledge and skill prior to entering the workforce.” NSCC’s Aircraft Maintenance Engineer program offers excellent hands-on instruction and uses actual aircraft to develop skills for the repair and maintenance of airframes, engines and associated systems for airplanes and helicopters. NSCC President, Dr. Joan McArthur-Blair was on hand to accept the certificate of program accreditation from CAMC. “At NSCC we strive to support our students’ success everyday,” says McArthur-Blair. “We believe their success is strengthened through high-quality programs, and strong linkages with industry. It is in this spirit, that on behalf of NSCC, I am pleased to accept the CAMC accreditation for the aircraft maintenance engineering program.” The aviation industry is taking off, creating an unprecedented demand for trained Aircraft Maintenance Engineers. There are more than 6,000 people employed in the aerospace and defence industry in Nova Scotia. The Aerospace and Defence Industries Association of Nova Scotia expects that with the current skills shortage and the expected retirement of baby boomers in the next five years, between 850 and 1,000 skilled people will be needed to replace those who are leaving as well as meet the growth projections in the industry. By 2007, one-third of new jobs in Canada will require a skilled trade or college diploma. That's 20,000 unfilled jobs. This number will grow to 50,000 by 2010. The demand is evident in Nova Scotia - 90 per cent of Nova Scotia Community College's graduates are employed; 81 per cent in their field of study. (30) Contact:
Sara Napier, NSCC, (902) 491-6781/222-5471
Sara.Napier@nscc.ca Kita Szpak, CAMC, (613) 727-8272 ext. 262, kszpak@camc.ca |