Buckle up, a new workforce development program is taking off! It aims to grow the local aviation workforce and keep young talent in Hawaiʻi.
The state Department of Education is partnering with the Pearl Harbor Aviation Museum to train students in aviation mechanics. Under the pilot program, students will get more than 1,900 hours of hands-on learning over two years to prepare them for a Federal Aviation Administration certification.
The upshot? A starting hourly wage of $40 once they graduate from high school. To learn more about the program, HPR spoke with Wanelle Kaneshiro-Erdmann, the director of the department’s Workforce Development Branch.
Interview Highlights
On the launch of the program
KANESHIRO-ERDMANN: What we have realized at the department is that we have large workforce gaps in aviation and maritime, which are both industries that we rely heavily on, being an island state. So we wanted to see how we could start getting to work on building some of these pipelines. Aviation pilots and airline mechanics, we know, are shortage areas. So we were lucky enough to be able to have partnered with Pearl Harbor Aviation Museum to explore ways in which we could start training our kids and preparing our kids for that.
On partnering with Hawaiian Airlines
KANESHIRO-ERDMANN: Well, a lot of our pilot programs, we start with targeted schools, but the conversation really starts with industry. Hawaiian Airlines has reached out to say we want to be able to provide students with the opportunity to see the different careers that are available in the airline industry. They've allowed our students to come in and spend the week with them to see all the different jobs that are available, including pilots and airline mechanics. So then our students can see for themselves that there are these jobs available and that they can take the skills that they have or they want to build upon and make a living out of it here.
On preparing Hawaiʻi youth for the workforce
KANESHIRO-ERDMANN: That's one of the things that Superintendent Keith Hayashi really wanted to stress when he became superintendent. He wanted to make sure that we were preparing our kids for the workforce, not just college. A lot of our kids don't go to college. So what are we doing to make sure they have the skills necessary to be successful? So it's programs like these where we can get our kids to earn industry-recognized credentials so that they can enter the workforce upon graduation. That's going to be a win-win for all of us.
More information about the program and its current students can be found on the Hawaiʻi State Department of Education website.
This story aired on The Conversation on March 30, 2026. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. Jinwook Lee adapted this story for the web.
