Air Traffic School Available for Clay High School Students

Florida Community College will offer an “Air Traffic Control Summer Experience” for 40 high-school students, preferably juniors and seniors, from Clay, Duval, Nassau and St. Johns counties.

The two-week program runs 9 a.m.-3 p.m. from July 28 to Aug. 8 at the FCCJ Cecil Center South Aviation Center of Excellence, providing hands-on experience with air traffic control simulators and the chance to explore career opportunities. Tuition is free for accepted students.

The program is ideal for students with an interest in aviation and high-tech careers who might enroll in an Aerospace Career Academy and/or the FCCJ Aviation Center’s Air Traffic-College Training Initiative.

With a projected critical shortage of air traffic controllers due to upcoming retirement of about 70 percent of current controllers, the Federal Aviation Administration is increasing efforts to recruit and train replacements, the college said in a statement. By collaborating with colleges qualified and equipped to provide the FAA-certified training, the FAA hopes to fill as many as 17,000 vacancies in the next decade with the Air Traffic-College Training Initiative, the statement said.

FCCJ was authorized in 2007 as one of only 23 colleges nationwide to provide this training. FCCJ will begin its program in fall 2008 in a newly renovated facility, complete with the same simulators used in FAA training.

For more information, call 317-3814 or e-mail tmeyer@fccj.edu.

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