St. Cloud Technical College Launches Aircraft Maintenance And Echocardiography Programs This Fall

ST. CLOUD (WJON News) -- The students are back in the classroom at the St. Cloud Technical & Community College.

President Lori Kloos says the school's first class of Aircraft Maintenance Technician students are now on campus.

This is our inaugural cohort; 25 students are sitting at the college right now in Aircraft Maintenance Technician class.  I stopped in, and they were walking about glide ratios, which sounded overwhelming to me, but I'm glad that they understand it.

The program is full with a waiting list. SCTCC will be breaking ground on a new hangar at St. Cloud Sky Central Airport, with the program moving out there starting next year.

Another new program this fall is an Echocardiography Program, which is basically ultrasounds of the heart. Kloos says the 15 students enrolled could benefit from St. Cloud Hospital's renowned heart program.

I do think there's a lot of opportunities for that.  CentraCare is another fantastic partner with us.  Someone we absolutely work with to say what's the need, what's the demand, and how do we make sure we're training students to meet their career goals.

Kloos says about half of the students enrolled at St. Cloud Technical & Community College are liberal arts and transfer students; the other half are going into skilled trades.