Aviation Pathway

Sturgeon Public Schools’ Aviation Pathway Program

Villeneuve Airport (ZVL) is home to the Aviation Pathway Program, the Edmonton Region’s first high school aviation program, launched in partnership with Sturgeon Public Schools and Elevate Aviation. 

Open to students in Grades 10-12, the program gives high schoolers a rare, hands-on start to an aviation career, right inside a working airport. With two runways, a NAV CANADA control tower, and an Instrument Landing System, ZVL offers a real operational training environment no classroom could replicate. 

The program blends classroom learning with field-based experience in flight planning and simulation, navigation systems, ground crew operations, aircraft safety inspections, and terminal and service procedures. In the second year, students move into job shadowing with participating aviation companies at ZVL, gaining first-hand exposure to real careers alongside industry professionals. Students earn Career and Technology Studies (CTS) credits toward graduation, with a direct pathway to careers as pilots, maintenance engineers, air traffic controllers, or aerospace technicians. 

Since launching, the program has doubled its enrolment and expanded to welcome students from Parkland School Division and St. Albert Public School Division, alongside its founding partnership with Sturgeon Public Schools. A new dual-credit partnership with MacEwan University also brings an aviation management component to the second-year course.  

Learn more at sturgeon.ab.ca