Aviation Career Exploration & Learning Center – Executive Summary

With a growing demand for a qualified aviation workforce, to address the serious lack of cultural and education offerings in the region, and to spur learning in the core (STEM) fields - science, technology, engineering and math - among traditionally underserved populations, the NMCA has identified the need for a hands-on, comprehensive aviation career learning experience, the first of its kind in the nation. 

The primary target audience for the Learning Center will be school-age youth, ages K-12 and college/technical schools. Partnerships are being established with local public school systems, and with the University of Georgia collegiate system, including Clayton State University and local technical schools.

Designs for the Career Exploration & Learning Center call for a 43,000 square-foot, two-story hangar, with a control tower/observation deck.  The Learning Center will be the second of three main buildings in the overall museum campus, which will include art deco terminal buildings and other exhibit hangars. Museum organizers have secured an ideal 9-acre site for the Main Campus, and have sectioned off a 2-acre area for the Learning Center. Tremendous in-kind services from architects, construction firms, and Clayton County, have already allowed Museum organizers to preliminarily design and site the Career Exploration & Learning Center. Ground breaking on Phase I could occur as early as 2013, with an opening in 2014.