{"id":23244,"date":"2022-08-22T17:10:57","date_gmt":"2022-08-22T17:10:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/saj.pachecostudios.com?p=23244"},"modified":"2022-08-22T17:12:04","modified_gmt":"2022-08-22T17:12:04","slug":"west-mecs-aviation-program-soars-to-new-heights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/state-news\/arizona\/west-mecs-aviation-program-soars-to-new-heights\/%20","title":{"rendered":"West-MEC’s Aviation Program Soars to New Heights"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Photo above – West-MEC Aviation Program Instructor Terry Menees confers with students.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Western Maricopa Education Center (West-MEC), a career\ntechnical education (CTE) public school district serving Phoenix, Arizona, is\npreparing students to enter the aviation industry with high-value credentials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2021, 13 out of 26 West-MEC’s high school aviation\nprogram students were able to head straight into the workforce after completing\nthe program for directly related employment in the aviation industry. Careers\ncan be secured in manufacturing, airlines, hangars, airfields and repair\nstations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The pandemic exacerbated employment shortages in the\naviation sector by slowed-down training and hiring and early retirements, but\nnow the industry is taking off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Bureau of Transportation Statistics recently reported\nthat airline industry employment has reached beyond pre-pandemic levels.\nEmployment increased to 767,263 passenger and cargo airlines workers in June\n2022, which is 23,893 more jobs than in June 2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The world has been through difficult circumstances the\npast couple of years but, as bad as things were, it’s never been this\ngood,” said West-MEC Aviation Instructor Terry Menees. “The older\ngeneration is starting to move on, creating many new job opportunities for\nyoung adults. Now that travel is open, people want to get out and explore the\nworld again.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Students also test for industry-standard certifications at\nWest-MEC, such as the Federal Aviation Administration, at no additional cost.\nEarning a high-value credential such as the FAA helps students achieve a career\nas an airframe technician, powerplant technician, air transportation\ntechnician, and many more. The knowledge obtained from the aviation program is\ntransferable to a broad spectrum of careers within the aviation industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

West-MEC students, both in the high school and adult\nprograms, are consistently able to get great jobs right out of school,\nsomething that was tough to do even a couple of years ago. West-MEC even trains\nstudents for the job-seeking process through industry tours and interview prep.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Students who completed their aviation program in 2021 are\nnow employed by Goodyear Airport, PDS Tech (Honeywell), McAllister Aviation,\nAeroteams(AerSale), Airtime Aircraft, PDS Tech Honeywell), AZ Flight Training\nCenter, Aersale and SkyQuest Aviation, to name a few.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Menees added, “With the vast number of opportunities in\naviation, it is more important than ever for young people to prepare. When they\nwalk out of the West-MEC doors, there’s a tremendous chance of getting a good\njob after the proper certification process.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Photo above – West-MEC Aviation Program Instructor Terry Menees confers with students. Western Maricopa Education Center (West-MEC), a career technical education (CTE) public school district serving Phoenix, Arizona, is preparing students to enter the aviation industry with high-value credentials. In 2021, 13 out of 26 West-MEC’s high school aviation program students were able to head […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":23247,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,98],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23244","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arizona","category-aviation-education"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/West_MEC_Terry_Menees_confers_with_students-edit-1.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23244","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23244"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23244\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23246,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23244\/revisions\/23246"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23247"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}