Airlines
United Airlines launching apprenticeship program
Calibrate is a 36-month program that allows participants to “earn and learn”.
The launch of Calibrate, an internal apprenticeship programme, by United Airlines today will help expand and diversify its pool of aircraft maintenance technicians (AMTs). The inaugural class will begin training next week in Houston as the airline plans to train more than 1,000 people at about a dozen locations by 2026, with the objective that at least half of them will be women or people of colour.
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Calibrate is a 36-month programme that allows participants to “earn and learn” by receiving compensation while undergoing full-time certification and training. Participants avoid paying the up to $50,000 cost of attending a technical school because they are paid while they learn.
The International Brotherhood of Teamsters, United, and the Federal Aviation Administration created the apprenticeship programme to speed up the process of becoming a United AMT and expand the airline’s pool of facility technicians and mechanics.
The second cohort of Calibrate apprentices is anticipated to begin in early 2023, also in Houston, and to spread to more than a dozen additional locations, including San Francisco and Orlando.
At the top of their pay scale, United’s approximately 9,000 highly qualified and certified aircraft maintenance technicians receive combined wages and benefits of more than $140,000. The airline actively seeks out candidates from trade schools and the military for these highly skilled positions, and United offers entry-level positions as a path to a career in these fields. Many United executives began their careers as mechanics, including the present Vice President of Line Maintenance.
United is on track to hire more than 15,000 new team members systemwide and expects to hire over 15,000 new employees in 2023, including 7,000 maintenance technicians by 2026. This year alone, United has hired over 800 maintenance technicians and expects to hire 2,000 in 2023.
