Aviation SHSM Program Brings Students Closer to Career Dreams
On October 22nd, over 90 students stepped inside the Bombardier Centre for Aerospace and Aviation at Centennial College. They weren’t there for a typical campus tour. They were there to explore manufacturing labs, meet Royal Canadian Air Force personnel, and see what a career in aerospace could actually look like.
Students from the Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board and Halton Catholic District School Board spent the day working with real aircraft, speaking with aviation professionals, and discovering pathways they might not have known existed.
Beyond the Classroom
The difference between reading about aviation and standing in a hangar with a CRJ-200 jet is the difference between theory and possibility. Students explored cockpits, worked with drones, and learned from aviation technicians about what the job actually involves.
Centennial’s Downsview Campus sits in the historic de Havilland plant, where aircraft were built during WWI and WWII. Walking through those spaces, students connected with both the history of the industry and its current reality.
This is what SHSM programs are designed to do: help students see themselves in careers they’re considering, not just learn about them from a distance.
SHSM Students Learning from People Who’ve Been There
The Royal Canadian Air Force sent team members including Major Marlene Shillingford, Sgt. Alexandre Harnois, and Lt. Col. Terry Wong. They shared their career stories, the decisions that led them to aviation, and the skills that matter most in their work.
After the event, Major Shillingford commented: “It was such a privilege. LearnIt is such a great platform to introduce students to various trades and inspiring them.”
LearnIt facilitator Yongbiao Guo guided the Innovation, Creativity & Entrepreneurship (ICE) training. Students worked through real problems using design thinking, testing ideas and presenting solutions. It’s the kind of challenge that feels different from typical classroom work because the application is immediate and tangible.
What the Day Actually Looked Like
- 9:00 AM — Warm-up activity and introductions
- 9:45 — 11:30 AM — ICE training in small groups, identifying challenges and prototyping solutions
- Lunch — Career conversations and networking
- Afternoon — Facility tours in small rotations, exploring aviation technician workspaces and walking through the hangar to see aircraft up close, with conversations with Centennial staff about Aviation and Aerospace programs
- Closing — Reflection and Q&A on what students had seen and experienced
Why This SHSM Experience Matters
Students engage differently when they can connect what they’re learning to where they might be going. Abstract goals like “doing well in school” become concrete when you’ve met someone who once sat in your seat and now works in a field you find interesting.
One participating educator put it this way: “Events like this remind us of the power of experiential learning, connecting classroom knowledge to real world possibilities and sparking the next generation’s curiosity.”
We’ve worked with over 20 school boards across Ontario to create these kinds of experiences. What we’ve learned is that students appreciate honesty. They want to know what careers actually require, what the challenges are, and whether it’s something they could see themselves doing.
The 95% engagement rate we see in our programs comes from respecting students enough to give them real information and real experiences, not sanitized versions designed to recruit them.
The Work Behind the SHSM Experience
None of this happens without educators who coordinate permissions, manage logistics, and advocate for their students. Mike Reinhart, Emily Baggetta, Andrew Conroy, Dan Alford, and Ricardo Hamilton from participating school boards made this day possible.
So did Centennial College staff, especially Samira Bullock, Aaron Schoenmaker, and Natalia, who hosted 90 students and opened their facilities for hands-on exploration.
These partnerships take time to build. They require trust between school boards, postsecondary institutions, industry partners, and organizations like LearnIt. When they work, students get access to opportunities that wouldn’t exist otherwise.
What SHSM Students Told Us
After the day, students shared what resonated most. Many mentioned getting close to real aircraft and engines. Others appreciated hearing honest career stories from Air Force members. Some found the ICE training challenging in a way that felt meaningful.
The feedback we consistently hear is that students want experiences that respect their intelligence and give them agency in their own futures. They want to make informed decisions, not have careers sold to them.
Where This Leads
Ontario’s Specialist High Skills Major program exists across 19 sectors. Aviation is one pathway among many, but the principle is the same: connect students with industries, give them hands-on experiences, and help them see what’s possible.
When students participate in these programs, they’re not just exploring careers. They’re building confidence, discovering interests, and learning how to navigate systems they’ll encounter throughout their lives.
The Aviation Exploration Day gave 90 students a glimpse into aerospace careers. More importantly, it showed them that the gap between where they are now and where they want to be isn’t as wide as they might have thought.