DANVILLE (WSLS 10) - Aviation students have the opportunity to work for Piedmont Airlines as a flight instructor at Averett and earn tuition reimbursement.
"Usually around year-three, they become flight instructors. That's when they can go on their interview with Piedmont Airlines," said Averett Chief Flight Instructor Travis Williams.
If they're hired, Piedmont Airlines will pay them $1,000 in tuition reimbursement for every 100 hours of flight time they complete as an instructor.
Once they've completed 700 hours on top of the 300 that they'll complete while they're a student, they'll start working as a pilot for Piedmont Airlines and could eventually transition to a position as a pilot with Piedmont's parent company American Airlines.
"Piedmont seems to offer a lot of variety in today's aviation industry, so it's an amazing opportunity for all of our students," said former student Gabriel Verde.
Verde just graduated from Averett's aviation program and is now a flight instructor.
He has his interview with Piedmont Airlines on August 4th.
Looking back, he says, the small size of Averett's program was beneficial in preparing for the interview.
"It was almost like family oriented, so everybody helped out each other which was great. It made me move along the program much quicker," he said.
Williams hopes this agreement will help the university compete with larger programs, as the need for pilots is expected to fly sky high in the future.
"Boeing just released a study that over the next 20 years, there's a need for some 600,000 pilots throughout the world," Williams pointed out.
27 students will begin this fall, the university's largest class in history.