Annual Visit Designed To Help Guide Students Who Might Be Interested In Aviation Careers

School counselors from Greenville County Schools in South Carolina will tour the Greenville Downtown Airport Thursday morning in order to learn about jobs that are available in the aviation/aerospace industry. About 25 counselors are expected to participate.

Each year, 8th graders across the State choose a “career cluster” of interest from a list of 16 choices while 10th graders identify a specific course of study,  “career major”, as part of the Personal Pathways to Success program. Each career cluster identifies sample careers and suggested courses related to the students cluster and major choices. For example if a student chooses the Transportation, Distribution and Logistics cluster, future career interests might include Aerospace Engineer, Pilot, Aircraft Maintenance Tech or Air Traffic Controller and high school coursework would include academic foundation courses like math, science, along with problem solving and technical skills. Students have the option of changing their cluster and major choices.
 
"Personal Pathways is in place to help students and parents understand the importance of relating educational experiences and career aspirations,” stated  Marilyn Nasiatka, Career Specialist, Greenville County Schools. "As career educators, we must go out into our community and keep up with the current employment trends, in order to better assist our students as they consider possible career interests. The aviation industry is growing in our state and we need to be aware of employment trends and positions that companies struggle to fill," stated Nasiatka. The airport commission office has put together a wonderful program that includes visiting the control tower to see what air traffic controllers do; a flight school to learn about pilot training available;  an aircraft maintenance shop to see the precision and an aircraft maintenance tech training school to learn about local training opportunities. We will also have a presentation about job opportunities in aerospace manufacturing from ADEX Machining Technologies, a Boeing supplier. It will be fast paced, given our two hour window, but I think we will all walk away with a better understanding of the industry and its employment needs," added Nasiatka.
 
"The Greenville Downtown Airport is happy to assist our community in anyway we can,"  stated Joe Frasher, Airport Director of the Greenville Downtown Airport (GMU). "Our industry has jobs that will need filling and we would love for our local youth to train to fill them!" added Frasher.

(Photo provided by Greenville Downtown Airport)

FMI: www.greenville.k12.sc.us