Currituck aircraft maintenance school being built
March 09--MAPLE, N.C. -- Construction began Thursday on a 40,000-square-foot aircraft maintenance school near the Currituck Regional Airport, expanding the region's focus on aviation.
The center is expected to cost $7.3 million and be finished by the end of the year as a satellite campus of the College of The Albemarle in Elizabeth City.
"We're going to train peopleto go out and make really good money," Dr. Kandi Deitemeyer, president of COA, said during a ceremony before Thursday's groundbreaking.
COA has graduated 118 people from repeated aviation sheet-metal courses begun two years ago. So far, 40 have landed jobs, said Elton Stone, the school's director of aviation maintenance technology.
When the new center opens, the sheet metal course and others, including avionics and power plant mechanics, will be added. Stone said that should lead to an increase in Federal Aviation Administration certifications that would enhance employment chances for graduates.
Nationally, employment in the aviation industry has fallen the past three years after gaining annually from 2003 to 2008.
In North Carolina, the average annual wage in the aviation industry is more than $62,000. The Coast Guard Air Station in Elizabeth City attracts private aviation industries such as DRS Technical Services, which employs more than 200 people.
Jeff Hampton, 252-338-0159, [email protected]
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