FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 14, 2008
Media Contact: Michael Corby 904.632.3310

FCCJ Aviation Center accepting applications for Air Traffic Control Summer Experience for 40 students from Duval, Nassau, Clay and St. Johns counties, grades 11-12

Two-week Air Traffic Control career exploration offered at no cost for accepted students

Florida Community College is offering an Air Traffic Control Summer Experience for 40 high–school students, preferably in grades 11 and 12, from Duval, Nassau, Clay and St. Johns counties. It begins July 28 and runs through Aug. 8, from 9 a.m.–3 p.m., at the FCCJ Cecil Center South—Aviation Center of Excellence. The two–week session will provide hands–on experience with high–tech air traffic control simulators and the chance to explore career opportunities in this high–skill/high–wage field. Tuition is free for accepted students.

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. 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 (AT–CTI). 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.

This Air Traffic Control Summer Experience is ideal for students with an interest in aviation and high–tech careers, who might then enroll in one of the local Aerospace Career Academies and/or in the FCCJ Aviation Center’s AT–CTI program.

The instructor is John B. Slate, Aviation teacher at Frank H. Peterson Academies of Technology and an adjunct professor in the FCCJ Aviation program. For more information, call 904.317.3814 or e–mail Tamera Meyer.