Charting Their Course
BRCC AMT Grads Enter Booming Job Market Quickly
Gordon Brown, Corey Noble, and Parker Burns recently completed Blue Ridge Community College’s Aviation Maintenance Technology certificate and/or degree programs and already know they are going places. Norfolk, VA, Greenville, SC, and Blacksburg, VA, respectively, to be exact.
Gordon secured a position with PSA Airlines, a subsidiary of American Airlines, and will start work in Norfolk in September. He’ll be maintaining Bombardier aircraft. When Gordon was ready for a career change, he came to BRCC because of affordability and convenience. He enjoyed the hands-on aspects of the training most.
“I’ve always really liked planes. I liked going to air shows with my granddad,” he noted. “I really liked the hands-on projects we did, like building a wing. It was hard work but you could be proud of the end result.”
PSA Airlines also hired Corey, but he was interested in moving further south, so he chose their Greenville, SC, location. His focus will be working on landing gear, cabin pressure controls, and air conditioning systems. He has been interested in aviation for many years. He earned a bachelor’s in aviation from Averett University and has a pilot’s license. He has his father to thank for alerting him to BRCC’s program.
“I wanted to get my mechanic’s license for a while. It’s rare to find a program to complete it in one year,” Corey said. “Once I found out about it, it was a no-brainer to do the training here.”
Parker will be working for Omni Air International, a charter airline, and the beauty of that is he can live anywhere, as long as it’s near an international airport. His work schedule will be 20 days on, 10 days off, traveling with a specific plane. “Anything that comes up with that plane, you fix it,” he explained. Like his classmates, he enjoyed the detailed group projects of tearing down engines and getting them running again. The AMT program provides a solid foundation for the continued learning required in an aircraft maintenance career.
“Working in teams helps you build relationships and camaraderie. You have to do the same thing on the job,” Parker said. “You learn the basics here, so you can keep getting more training with the employer. The schooling never stops.”
Their classmates are all entertaining job offers as well. “There’s a good demand,” said Corey. “You can get a good job anywhere you want to go.”
