Pearl River Community College Set to Create UAS Program
The Mississippi Community College Board has awarded Pearl River Community College (PRCC), located in Poplarville, Mississippi, with the Career and Technical Education Challenge Grant, worth $215,250. PRCC will use the grant to create a UAS program.
To create the program, PRCC is working with the Tyonek Services Overhaul Facility at the Stennis International Airport in Kiln, Mississippi.
When speaking about the program, Tyonek site director Dean Oden explains what the students in the program will learn so that they can be integrated into the growing industry of unmanned aerial systems.
“We need a workforce to cover what we do,” Oden says via the Hattiesburg American. “They will be working their way to the FAA Part 107 operator’s license. They will learn how to operate and maintain the UAS platform.”
According to Scott Alsobrooks, the vice president for workforce and economic development at PRCC, classes are expected to start in August. They will be taught at the college’s Hancock Center in Waveland, Mississippi.
Through the program, students will receive a two-year associate’s degree in applied science.
