Eleven of twelve students completed Santa Noeta College’s first Airport Maintenance Technology cohort; nine have received employment offers from STQ or its maintenance partners.
SANTA NOETA — October 3, 2026
Santa Noeta College announced Thursday that eleven students have completed the first cohort of its Airport Maintenance Technology certificate program, a 16-week track developed in partnership with the Santa Noeta Consortium as part of the FlyForward initiative.
Nine of the eleven completers are currently employed by or have received conditional employment offers from Santa Noeta Regional Airport or its contracted maintenance partners. Two are continuing into the college’s expanded Electrical Systems pathway, which begins in January.
Dr. Priya Raman, Dean of Workforce and Economic Development, called the completion rate — eleven of twelve who started — unusually strong for a new technical program. “Attrition in workforce programs usually happens in the first four weeks,” she said. “The fact that eleven of twelve people finished tells us the curriculum design was right. That matters more than the completion number.”
The program’s curriculum was developed by the Santa Noeta DPI team in consultation with airport operations staff, the Fuente Workforce Alliance, and the High Desert employment network. Marc Reyes, SNDPI’s Lead Performance Architect, said the design process took longer than the Consortium had projected.
“We went back to the airport three times before we had a clear picture of what the actual performance gaps were,” Reyes said. “Every time we thought we had it, someone from operations showed us something we hadn’t seen yet. That’s how it’s supposed to work.”
A second cohort of eighteen students is scheduled to begin the program in November. The Consortium is also developing a companion track focused on zero-emission ground support equipment, targeted for a spring launch.