The Australian Helicopter Industry Future Foundation (AHIFF) is set to announce new ewngineering scholarships at RotorTech in June.
Seven scholarships will be awarded to one recipient from each state and the NT, with money available for engineer training across the first three years.
The scholarships, awarded in partnership with the AMDA Foundation, are thought to be $3000 in the first year, $4500 in the second year and $6000 in the third year, although the exact figures have yet to be finalised.
An AHIFF spokesperson said the program was open to people from both urban and regional areas, although AHIFF was very keen to see young people from the regions apply.
The scholarships are part of a wider program jointly run by AHIFF and the Australian Helicopter Industry Association (AHIA) to encourage young people to consider aviation engineering as a career.
In 2022, AHIFF and AHIA ran eight workshops around Australia aimed at showing young people what is possible in the field of aviation engineering after 4-5 years of study. Another 10 workshops re planned for this year.
AHIFF was founded after the Cameron family gifted $500K to AHIA for developing awareness of aviation engineering in young people in order to combat the loss of engineers through retirement and the lack of people entering the system.
AHIFF is separate to AHIA, and is run by chair Peter Boyle and directors Ray Cronin and Paul Tyrrell.
AHIFF has invested the initial capital, and is looking for future sponsors to supplement the program in order to extend the scholarships and workshops for many years.
RotorTech is on at The Pines on the Gold Coast, running from 4-6 June 2024.