Wings Enabling Youth to Fly

The Wings over Wairarapa Air Festival 2019 is adding another element to an already iconic event for New Zealand.

As well as flying with the much loved WWI, WWII, modern military, gliders, agricultural, helicopters, and first ever Night Show, the 2019 Air Festival will have a strong emphasis on education and careers for youth.

Chair Bob Francis says the education and careers initiative has been well thought out and is motivated on opening up the aviation industry for youth.

“Our education and careers programme will feature across all three days of the Air Festival.  On Friday 22 February we are inviting all Wairarapa schools to come to Hood Aerodrome and learn about the world of aviation.”

“We will have dedicated zones groundside that will focus on careers, training, technology, space, science and engineering.”

“All of the zones will be interactive and will have experts in each field available to talk with students and teachers, opening up their minds to the many varied and interesting fields within aviation, that they may not have considered before.”

REAP Wairarapa Schools Liaison Trudy Sears has been working closely with Wings Operations Manager, Chris Tracey to develop a robust, interactive and engaging programme for students of all ages.

“The programme is aligned with the STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) curriculum and will provide students with visual and hands on STEM experiences, an added bonus for students and teachers.”

“Meeting STEM requirements is great, but more than this we want to ignite passion and spark interest in students for the aviation industry.  Maybe this is a career pathway they have not thought of before, or had a limited knowledge of the scope of the industry; this programme will reveal the many layers and options open to them.”

The dedicated zones will be carried on throughout the three day Air Festival, so anyone visiting the Air Festival can also find out more about the aviation industry.

ENDS