Did you know?
Over 4 million students travel abroad to study each year, many by air .
Relevance to aviation
Aviation enables the movement of students worldwide, providing access to educational opportunities which can be particularly relevant for students from countries in special situations. The industry itself also champions quality education for its own employees, specifically in areas such as engineering, air traffic management and pilot training. The manufacturing sector in particular is working hard to promote education in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
Examples of action
- Brazilian aircraft maker Embraer saw the need for improved childhood education in its home town of São José dos Campos. It established Juarez Wanderley High School which provides full-time, free, high-quality instruction to 600 less-privileged students per year coming from the local public schools.
- Pratt & Whitney Canada works in partnership with 20 Canadian universities and funds over 200 research projects.
- Hong Kong Airport is currently setting up an Aviation Academy, which will welcome its first batch of students in 2017.
- Boeing in the UK has built up an extensive relationship with academic institutions, which not only helps develop new technologies, but also provides training for existing employees and creates opportunities for students to join the company.
- Airbus Fly Your Ideas is a biennial global competition, organised in partnership with UNESCO, which challenges students to innovate for the future of sustainable aviation.
- JetBlue runs the JetBlue Foundation, which support aviation-related education and community outreach, encouraging young people to become involved in STEM subjects.
- Southwest Airlines purchases its inflight coffee from Community Coffee which dedicates part of its proceeds to fund educational programs to support the children, families, and farmers in Mexico where the company’s coffee beans are grown.
- Airbus runs an annual Global University Partner Programme, building links between the company and universities. The company also runs the Airbus Foundation Flying Challenge and Little Engineers programmes encourage young people to become involved with aviation.
Learn more in the Flying in Formation report