Excitement was in the air as the Honourable Michael de Jong announced the opening of UCFV’s own aerospace training facility in Hangar #4 at the Abbotsford Airport on Aug. 8, the first day of the Abbotsford Air Show.

The University College of the Fraser Valley is purchasing the facility with the help of a $1-million grant from the provincial government and a $260,000 donation in kind from the former owners of the hangar, Conair Group Inc., a privately owned, Abbotsford-based company that employs more than 400 people.

The facility will become the permanent home for UCFV’s Aerospace Structures Technician program, and has space suitable for training and research into the repair of aircraft made with newer composite materials.

UCFV vice-president Dr. Wayne Welsh said the new facility at the Abbotsford Airport opens the door for a broader aerospace training program at the university. “We want to expand into electronics and mechanics,” he said, “and not just structures.”

Abbotsford-Mount Lehman MLA de Jong told the audience gathered at the hangar how the UCFV aerospace program started. “Barry Marsden, president of Conair, said there was a huge future in aerospace for this area, but there was one big problem. We didn’t have the trained people… That’s when UCFV had the foresight to say we’re going to work with them.”

The result was a modular aerospace structure repair program, launched at the end of 2001. The program has produced 50 skilled graduates, and every four months, 18 new students are accepted into the program, with up to 80 on the waiting list.

The working partnership between UCFV and Conair has continued, as Conair donated temporary training space at the airport for more than 18 months, and is selling Hangar #4 to UCFV at $260,000 below market value. Cascade Aerospace has also made contributions to the program by providing old aircraft for the students to work on.

UCFV president Skip Bassford thanked both the B.C. government and Conair for their support. “This is the kind of partnership that the university needs, with both public and private funding,” he said.

De Jong says getting the province to agree to provide funds for the training centre was an easy sell. “This is part of an overall B.C. aerospace training strategy,” he said, adding that the goal of the strategy is for B.C. to become Canada ’s leader in the aerospace industry within a decade. To that end, the Premier established a province-wide aerospace training consortium in June and appointed UCFV president Bassford as chair.

“In 2001, there were 4,500 workers in the aerospace industry in Canada ,” de Jong said. “By 2011, the need will be for 10,000.”

Abbotsford mayor Mary Reeves also sees great potential, from both the industry and the UCFV training centre. “This vastly emerging industry is going to have tremendous benefits for both our community and the province as a whole,” she said. “And we don’t have to leave Abbotsford to get the higher education we need.”

For more information about aerospace training or other trades training opportunities at UCFV, please contact 604-854-4548 or visit the website at www.ucfv.ca/trades

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