By Maria Driscoll

A recent visit by Stephane Senechal to Holland College?s Aerospace and Industrial Technology Centre was especially memorable for Centre manager, Howard Sheppard and the staff.

Senechal, who is spearheading the Pratt & Whitney PT6 engine expansion at the Aerospace Centre, is also the new Pratt & Whitney Program Director at Atlantic Turbines ( a neighbor of the Centre at Slemon Park). Representing the Canadian Aviation Maintenance Council (CAMC), Senechal presented Sheppard with CAMC accreditation for the College?s Aircraft Gas Turbine and Engine Repair Overhaul Program.

A ten month program, the Aircraft Gas Turbine Engine Repair and Overhaul Program provides the students with the techniques, procedures and the documentation requirements necessary to perform the disassembly, inspection, repair, re-assembly and testing of the turbine engines used to power today?s aircraft.

"The issue of national accreditation has become increasingly important to both potential students and employers," Sheppard said. "This accreditation will make it even easier for future graduates of the program to find employment."

Sheppard also stated that while the Aircraft Gas Turbine Engine Repair and Overhaul course certificate had been accepted Canada wide for sometime now, it is even more so, especially to those employers who are corporate members of theCanadian Aviation Maintenance Council.

The CAMC is an industry led organization made up of employers, associations, regulators and educators working together to improve aviation maintenance training standards. These standards identify the required knowledge, skill and experience of qualified technicians and are also used to develop the basic training for new technicians or recurrent training for skilled workers in Approved Maintenance Organizations (AMO?s).

A number of graduates of the Aircraft Gas Turbine Engine Repair and Overhaul program have found employment throughout Canada and in the United States. The province?s growing aerospace industry, which is almost exclusively at Slemon Park, has hired a number of College graduates including Senechal?s company. He said because the standards have been established by the industry, the graduates have the extra bonus of knowing the skills they are receiving in the program are the ones demanded by the aerospace industry.

"Holland College has always been part of our business, ensuring that we have a supply of people close by we can actually use", Senechal said. "Our industry grows very fast and we need to have qualified people that are specifically trained in what we are doing in our own company---to have that starting point is very good for us."