To address the shortage of aircraft maintenance technicians, Daher announced yesterday at Sun ’n‘ Fun 2017 that two A&P students from the Central Florida Aerospace Academy (CFAA) in Lakeland, Florida, will be selected for a paid internship program this summer at Daher's TBM service center in Pompano Beach, Florida. They will work as apprentices in either the maintenance or avionics shops at the turboprop OEM’s U.S. headquarters.
CFAA is an aviation-oriented public high school located on the campus of, and financially assisted by, the Sun 'n Fun organization at Lakeland Linder Regional Airport. In fact, profits from this week’s Sun ’n‘ Fun Fly-In will be used to fund pilot and A&P programs at the school, as well as at Traviss Technical College and Polk State College aviation and aerospace programs. This year, just under 10 new A&P mechanics will graduate from CFAA.
Daher airplane business unit senior vice president Nicholas Chabbert told AIN that typically only about half of newly graduated A&P technicians actually enter the aviation industry, as many are poached by theme parks, luxury auto service centers and other industries that require mechanically skilled workers. He stressed that the internship will cover all costs for the selected students and that there is a possibility that they could be offered permanent jobs at the end of the two-month apprenticeship.
