Aviation students in the Owensboro region can complete their degrees and receive training without ever leaving home under a new program between Owensboro Community and Technical College and Eastern Kentucky University.
Under the agreement, students will take their first two years of classes at OCTC and complete their bachelor’s degree at EKU online. They’ll then have hands-on training at the Owensboro-Daviess County Regional Airport.
EKU’s Director of Aviation Ralph Gibbs says programs like this will fill a real need.
"There's a forecast demand of pilots over the next 20 years that is 500,000," Gibbs told WKU Public Radio. "That's such an astronomical number that even if I had the next 20 years to create new pilots at the Richmond campus, it wouldn't even put a dent in it."
EKU has similar agreements with community and technical colleges in Hazard, Middlesboro, and Ashland.
