Cape Fear Community College is launching a new Career Pilot Program designed to meet a growing demand for pilots and other professionals in the aviation industry.

The program aims to provide students with the foundational knowledge and skills needed to pursue a career as a commercial pilot. The first two courses – an aviation fundamentals class and a pilot instrument ground school course – will be offered at the community college this fall.

Michele Bourk, an instructor in the career pilot program, said the courses stem from an effort to bring aviation career development to New Hanover County high school students. Bourk, a trained advanced ground instructor, previously owned and operated a flight school. Her husband, Jeff Bourk, is the director of Wilmington International Airport.

Last December, the Cape Fear Community College Foundation received a $5.5 million grant from the New Hanover Community Endowment to provide high school students with training and career pathways to enter a range of industries like aviation and advanced manufacturing, among others.

“The primary focus is to offer high school students the opportunity to start on a pathway towards a career in aviation and … while we’re doing that, we’re also offering this through Career and Technical Education for adults,” Bourk said.

The Aviation Fundamentals course will provide students with a comprehensive overview of air transportation, including potential career paths, while the Pilot Instrument Ground School course will prepare students for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) instrument written test. The program will build on the community college’s existing private pilot program, Bourk said.

Becoming a commercial pilot requires a series of levels of achievement. A typical pathway might include completing private pilot and instrument training before moving into commercial training and building flight experience, Bourk said. Commercial pilots need at least 1,500 hours of flying.

“That’s a significant amount of flying time, and there’s a lot of flight training that goes along with that,” Bourk said. “You’re looking at about at least two years, if not longer, for somebody to go from a dreamer that thinks maybe this would be a great career to actually doing it.”

The college courses and high school offerings aim to address a shortage of pilots and other roles in the aviation industry, including air traffic controllers and aviation maintenance roles. The high school program, expected to kick off in January, could offer continuing education credits for juniors and seniors.

“Our goal is to increase our workforce education into a career area that’s underserved, frankly, in our area,” Bourk said.

An uptick in pilot retirements during the COVID-19 pandemic and a mandatory retirement age requirement for pilots and air traffic controllers have contributed to current industry shortages, according to Bourk.

The sector is seeing an uptick in growth, with the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projecting an estimated 16,800 job openings each year for airline and commercial pilots.

Although in its early stages, Bourk said the goal is to expand the number of courses offered in the aviation program in the coming years. The private pilot program kicks off on Sept. 9, and the instrument course will start on Oct. 1, according to Bourk.

Cape Fear Community College will host an information session for students interested in the career pilot program on Sept. 5 from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Union Station at 502 N. Front St. in Wilmington.