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The Sunshine Economy

Sunshine Economy: Training Tomorrow's Aviation Workers

Tom Hudson

This is a sign in a second floor avionics classroom at George T. Baker Aviation Technical College in Miami. It's a Miami-Dade County Public School with 550 high school students and 800 adult students taking FAA-certified classes on airframes, power plants and avionics. The sign serves as a clear reminder this is more than a classroom.

Credit Tom Hudson
Assistant Principal George W. Sands in one of the school's airframe workshops.

"It is still a high school, yes, " says assistant principal George W. Sands. The high school students come in two shifts, morning and early afternoon. They are bused to and from their home schools where they take the usual schedule of classes: science, history, math, etc.

But at Baker they take airframe (wings and fuselage), power plant (engines and fuel systems) and avionics (communications and navigation). 

"When they get off the bus and walk into this building, this isn't school. That other place that you go, that's school. This is a job,"  Sands says. "You're not going to get to American Airlines at MIA [Miami International Airport] if you don't wear your ID everyday. You just lost a day's pay. We try to mimic everything, so the transition to the workforce should be pretty seamless."

Below, watch a video of an adult power plant troubleshooting class. 

Adult Power Plant Troubleshooting Class

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Tom Hudson is WLRN's Senior Economics Editor and Special Correspondent.