The new drone training at Noorderpoort in Groningen is so popular that a waiting list has now been created. The would-be drone pilots are partly trained at Groningen Airport Eelde.
“The number of registrations for this training is so large that we have a waiting list,” can be read in a pop-up that appears on the website of the new Drone Operations Specialist training from Noorderpoort in Groningen. “We are forced to refer students to similar courses in Zwolle and Emmeloord.”
Henk Lukken is project leader of the MBO course, which will start in September and will partly take place in Drenthe. ”It went very fast. We had media attention at the end of last year and after the subsequent open day we were actually already full.” Drenthe offers the ‘practical rooms’ of the MBO training. Flying in will soon take place in a hangar at Groningen Airport Eelde, next to the room where the air ambulance is stationed.
In the first year, Noorderpoort will train twenty students, but it is already certain that more students will be admitted next year. Lukken: ”We deliberately started small, because you have to have an internship for everyone. We are convinced that that number will grow significantly in the coming years.”
Students are trained in three years to become fully-fledged drone pilots, a profession for which demand is expected to increase significantly in the coming years. Think of security, maintenance of wind turbines, the agricultural sector. More and more drones are being used there.
And the army of course, although Noorderpoort deliberately does not advertise that. Lukken: ”Our students will soon have their papers to work as pilots in all sectors. We especially want to keep it as broad as possible. By the way, I did speak with Defense in Havelte. It would be good if internships were also created there.”
Sjaak Visser is the teacher who will help budding drone pilots obtain a diploma. ”The curriculum is in place, we are ready. We already have super nice drones in stock. From small, dumb drones that you can fly indoors to large enterprise drones with a world of cameras and sensors underneath. Our students will soon be flying them all.”
The originally Asser model flying club RCMA hosts the outdoor flights that the students will make. They can be found at his airport in Ubbena almost every week from the coming school year. “They also fly in other places, such as around company buildings and later also above nature reserves,” says teacher Visser.
The twenty lucky young people who start in September will learn everything about piloting drones, programming the machines, making flight plans, how cameras and sensors work and more. Visser: “We also pay attention to non-flying drones, such as self-driving cars and vessels.”
The people on the waiting list have little choice but to move elsewhere or be patient for a year. ”Unless students who registered do not pass their secondary education. Then a spot may become available, but you shouldn’t gamble on that.”
