A technical college in Minnesota plans to launch an aviation maintenance technician program next year as part of efforts to expand the state’s MRO talent pool.
St. Cloud Technical and Community College, located about 70 mi. northwest of Minneapolis, is in the process of obtaining the necessary approvals from the FAA to start classes for a Part 147 aviation maintenance program in fall 2026.
Zackary Nicklin, the college’s director of aviation maintenance, says that although Minnesota has three other Part 147 schools, they are spread throughout the state, and some are facing extensive wait lists as interest grows among prospective students and industry.
For instance, he notes that Part 147 schools in the state are being asked to provide greater graduate throughput for aviation employers in Minnesota, such as Cirrus Aircraft, Delta Air Lines, St Cloud Aviation and Sun Country Airlines.
While previously working at another Minnesota Part 147 school, Nicklin says, “there wasn’t a year that went by where we didn’t have 100% placement [of graduates] with other phone calls [from industry] saying, ‘We still need people,’ but we just didn’t have the people to give.”
For the initial 2026 opening, Nicklin wants to bring on another airframe and powerplant instructor and 25 students, with the potential to run multiple cohorts in the future. The program will initially operate from the school’s main campus in a former medium-heavy truck lab, but Nicklin is working to get a hangar built at St. Cloud Regional Airport that he hopes will be open by fall 2027.
Nicklin says preparing the medium-heavy truck lab for aviation maintenance classes has been a unique experience. “We had to do some maintenance to get things in. We had to remove wings and engines from airplanes to get them through the door, because the door was not built for an airplane,” he says.
The program currently has a Piper PA-44-180T Turbo Seminole, a Cessna 172RG Cutlass and a variety of training equipment. Nicklin says the equipment was acquired through a mix of state funding and industry support, and he is “making phone calls and knocking on doors as well.”
Nicklin also plans to launch the program with some features to support students better. For instance, he says many Part 147 schools require students to purchase between $5,000-8,000 worth of tools before they start classes, but his program will provide these for students in their first year.
“The idea behind it is we eliminate that initial hump of being able to afford the tools right away. It’s also a way to not saddle students with a lot of debt right away,” he says. Then, students can save money during their first year and determine which tools they will need based on their career aspirations before purchasing them.
“Your tool set’s going to be slightly different if you’re working a line job versus heavy maintenance or specializing in sheet metal,” he adds.
Nicklin also plans to offer modular curriculum instead of what he says are more typical 5-7 credit classes “that are kind of all encompassing” so students can more easily transition relevant experience from careers or other academic programs. For instance, a student with a robotics background from high school who has already learned about digital electronics and batteries would be able to get credit for the digital section of a basic electricity course instead of being required to take a five-credit course in which they already understand a quarter of the content.
“Making it more modular will help people, especially transitioning military folks who have been in the workforce or who are changing careers, to be able to customize the training to them and their experience without having to duplicate things they’ve already done,” he says.