Construction Continues on Aviation Training Center at RFD

Construction continues at RFD on a $5.1 million dollar aviation maintenance training center to better serve the region’s aerospace industry and attract business and jobs here. Rock Valley leaders pledged last summer to expand the school’s two-year aviation maintenance program to strengthen the labor pipeline for local employers.

Construction of a 40,000-square-foot classroom and lab facility on Cessna Drive will wrap up in May and classes will begin in mid-August 2015. Rock Valley’s program produces fewer than 50 graduates a year. The new facility will allow the college to triple that figure, and the college will hire a recruiter to oversee that effort.

The college also will expand its curriculum to include avionics, composites and nondestructive testing to support additional careers in aeronautics.

“We are very excited about this partnership with the airport,” said Mike Mastroianni, president of Rock Valley College. “This facility provides us with the capacity for up to 150 students to support not only an MRO but other employers in our region.

“The needs of industry have been heard and, together with the airport, we are working to meet them.”