SHEBOYGAN, WIS. – A recent study by the International Civil Aviation Organization reported that between 2010-2030 airlines around the world will need an average of 49,900 pilots per year, and current training is not keeping pace with that need.
As the airline industry braces for this shortage of pilots, Lakeland College – a private college in Sheboygan, Wisconsin – has established a new four-year college aviation program to help fill the void being left by state-funded programs, such as that at St. Cloud State University in St. Cloud, Minnesota. The administration at St. Cloud State University decided recently to drop its highly acclaimed aviation program in favor of non-aviation programs.
In a partnership with Frontline Aviation, a flight school with locations at the Sheboygan County Memorial Airport in Sheboygan and Austin Straubel International Airport in Green Bay, Lakeland College is now offering an aviation minor. The program will prepare students for professional careers in aviation and give them the added benefit of a four-year college degree.
“Graduates from Lakeland’s program will have the technical skills needed to fly, along with the critical thinking and other academic skills that come with a four-year liberal arts education,” said Kathy Rath Marr, chair of Lakeland’s Natural Science Division.
Lakeland will offer aviation courses beginning in the fall of 2011. Since students must pursue a four-year degree, they can enroll at Lakeland and begin their general studies and major coursework as early as this spring.
Bruce Bressler, president of Jet Air Group, Frontline’s parent corporation, said Lakeland’s four-year degree will provide graduates a broad academic foundation that will allow them to explore a variety of aviation careers. “Aviation students learn about weather, the physics of flying and managing a business that uses aircraft,” said Bressler. Frontline Aviation will provide basic training aircraft to more advanced glass cockpit airplanes and multi-engine aircraft.
Lakeland’s aviation minor is 31 credits of coursework, which includes ground school courses at Lakeland’s main Sheboygan County campus, and flight training at the Sheboygan County Memorial Airport. http://lakeland.edu/aviation
