Cuesta College will prepare students for jobs in airplane maintenance fields starting in 2023 

Drive south over the Cuesta Grade and you'll see a billboard advertising a class at Cuesta College like none other. Meet the brand new aviation maintenance technician program.

Starting in January 2023, the program is designed for students interested in the aviation industry to get their airframe and powerplant mechanics certifications, commonly known as the A&P certificate. The certification is required for anyone looking to become a licensed aviation maintenance technician. In order to be certified, students must take the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) aircraft mechanic oral, practical, and written tests, which require students to either have 18 months of practical experience or to have graduated from one of the 19 FAA approved Aviation Maintenance Technician schools in California.

"The A&P license is one of the few paths [where] you don't need to go to a four-year school and you don't need to move away. If this program is here, you can get this license, and once you have that license, you are pretty much employable in a variety of industries, even aerospace and beyond. No matter where you go. You're just always going to find a job if you have that FAA license," said Bill Borgsmiller, president and CEO of ACI Jet.

The Cuesta program has been in the works for five years after industry officials like Borgsmiller realized the need was growing for technicians in the aerospace industry. According to Boeing's 2022 Pilot and Technician Forecast, nearly 610,000 new maintenance technicians will be needed to maintain the global commercial fleet over the next 20 years. Borgsmiller then reached out to Cuesta College Superintendent Jill Stearns about creating a new program to address the shortage issue.

"When I brought the request from Mr. Borgsmiller to the team at Cuesta College, the first step was to research the employment opportunity for aviation maintenance technicians locally, statewide, and nationally," Stearns said via email. "Employment of technicians includes operations related to commercial flight, private aviation, drones, and U.S. government positions. There is a large and growing need for licensed aviation maintenance technicians."

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, aircraft mechanics' and service technicians' employment is projected to grow by 12 percent, and avionics technicians' employment is projected to grow by 10 percent—and both roles are expected to outpace employment levels for all other occupations in the U.S. by 8 percent.

"San Luis Obispo is a pretty aerospace-centric community with Cal Poly here, and a lot of people don't realize drone development, all these little mom-and-pop aerospace companies, they all need technical people to work on the devices that they build, create, and maintain," Borgsmiller said. "So we just kind of heard we realized our grumblings weren't unique to ourselves. And so we started talking to Cuesta about putting a program together."

But creating a brand new aviation maintenance technician program wasn't cheap. According to Stearns, it took nearly $2 million to get the program off the ground.

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• Photo Courtesy Of Cuesta College
• LEARNING THE ROPES Cuesta College is drumming up interest in its new aviation maintenance technician program, where students will get hands-on experience working on a variety of aircraft. Community ed courses began Sept. 6, and the certificate program begins January 2023.

"Cuesta College received very substantial support from ACI Jet and SLO County Board of Supervisors, each of whom provided $500,000 to launch the program. Additionally, Cuesta College is investing federal Title V grant funds received for this purpose and using career education funding, including Strong Workforce [program] and Perkins [federal grant], to cover the start-up and ongoing costs of the program," she said.

Stearns added that Cuesta has also applied for an FAA grant to help fund the program.

Once the 18-month program launches in January 2023, it will allow a cohort of 25 students based on a first come, first served basis to work on decommissioned aircrafts at ACI Jet's hangar in the San Luis Obispo Airport.

"Some of the things that they'll be working on is pulling components apart into the parts, being able to sort of work and troubleshoot the kinds of issues that might be occurring when something isn't running properly or isn't working effectively," said Dr. Oscar Ramos, dean of instruction at Cuesta College. "So we're basically aligning our curriculum with the FAA [to] ensure that we're meeting all the objectives so when they go to the test they're able to be successful."

The program isn't like your typical college class. Classes will take place Monday through Thursday for around six hours and will be split into two parts—30-minute classroom sessions followed by lab periods where students will be able to have hands-on experience working on a variety of aircrafts.

For now, ACI Jet and Cuesta College procured several aircrafts for students to work on, including a Cessna Citation jet, a Beechcraft King Air, and a Ryan Navion. Borgsmiller said they were still looking for a Cessna 172 Skyhawk and a helicopter.

While the first cohort of the aviation maintenance technician program will only be accepting 25 students, Stearns said that the start date of the next cohort is still being determined.

While there are no prerequisites for the program, Cuesta College is currently offering a series of five-week classes this semester to garner interest for the aviation maintenance technician program.

The first set of these classes was scheduled to begin on Sept. 6 with more than 80 students registered, Ramon said. In addition to these courses, he said that Cuesta has also been working with other high schools and community groups to generate interest in the program.

"So we have put [together] these community ed courses that we're running twice a week, so that people can sign up and say, 'Hey, am I interested in being an aviation maintenance tech? Maybe I am, maybe I'm not. What does it entail?'" Ramon said. "So what we're doing is creating an opportunity for students to see what they would potentially be doing and working on before they actually sign up for the [class]." Δ

Staff Writer Shwetha Sundarrajan can be reached at [email protected].