The SkyOp LLC Drone Training Curriculum Prepares Students for the Workforce of the Future

The SkyOp Drone Training Curriculum enables High School, CTE and P-Tech educational institutions to easily incorporate drone training as a standalone course or into existing course offerings. The curriculum equips students with in-demand skills that transfer to numerous career opportunities.

Canandaigua, N.Y. – SkyOp LLC, developer of industry-leading drone training courseware, has rolled out a comprehensive and customizable drone-based training curriculum which can be seamlessly integrated into high school, STEM, workforce development, continuing education and college credit programs. While other training programs focus on drone racing or aerial imaging as an entry point for students, the SkyOp Drone Training Curriculum goes beyond these basics to impart a cohesive skill set that combines regulatory, operational and technical knowledge about drones with data collection and analysis workflows. Through its proprietary learning management system (LMS), SkyOp ensures instructors have the most up-to-date teaching tools and students have access to a blended learning experience that drives home important lessons. Educational institutions and job development entities looking to learn more about the ready-to-deploy SkyOp Drone Training Curriculum can visit: https://www.skyop.com/training-solutions/stem-cte-ptech/www.skyop.com/training-solutions/stem-cte-ptech/

Commercial applications for unmanned flight are currently undergoing a dramatic expansion with drones becoming commonplace in law enforcement, media, agriculture, real estate, construction, insurance and more. For educational institutions looking to ensure their programs are preparing students for the modern-day workforce, the SkyOp Drone Training Curriculum offers a fully customizable and comprehensive training solution which imparts graduates with all the core skills necessary for a career as a drone pilot. Course materials provided through the proprietary SkyOp learning management system (LMS) are updated in realtime to ensure instructors are teaching the most-current regulations and keeping pace with the high-speed evolution of drone technology.

“Our drone training curriculum incorporates all the prerequisite skills a budding drone pilot will need to dive headlong into the workforce including the basics of flight, practiced hands-on flight time, and most importantly, the data collection and data management skills employers demand,” said Brian Pitre, SkyOp
LLC’s Chairman of the Board. “While FAA licensing is a prerequisite, that test does not measure a pilot’s actual flight competence. With our Drone Training Curriculum, educational institutions can create trulyimpactful STEM, CTE and P-Tech programs for their students, ensuring they graduate the course competent
in these core skills.”

As a customizable curriculum, the SkyOp offering can be tailored to fit each educational institution’s unique needs. This flexibility is ideal for schools looking to integrate drone training into current school year or summer programs for high school juniors and seniors. The six core components of SkyOp’s comprehensive
STEM, CTE or P-Tech curriculum represent more than 300 hours of instruction and coursework which includes:

• Intro to Drones: Students will receive a basic overview of drones, how they function and fly, while also learning to fly effectively without GPS, and discuss how drones are currently being deployed for commercial and public safety use.

• Part 107 Test Prep: Students will gain an understanding of the safety and operational requirements necessary to successfully complete the FAA Unmanned Aircraft – General test and become fullylicenseddrone pilots.
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• Hands-On Drone Flight Training – DJI Phantom 4 Pro: Students will receive comprehensive outdoor flight training on the versatile DJI Phantom 4 Pro including all of its advanced features.

• Drone Photo and Video Production: Students will use their flight skills to capture outstanding aerial imagery (pictures and video) and then be taught how to manage and manipulate that data in popular digital editing software to create video productions.

• Intro to Autonomous Drone Apps with Hands-On Flight Training: Students will learn to program autonomous missions, becoming proficient in the execution of the autonomous flight protocols which enable many commercial drone deployments.

• Intro to Pix4D: Students will learn how to use an advanced photogrammetry software package to turn raw data into actionable intelligence as they are introduced to orthomosaic mapping, 3D modeling, point clouds, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and more.

The SkyOp Drone Training Curriculum recently completed a successful initial pilot program in partnership with Hudson Valley Community College and the U.S. Department of Labor which launched a drone training curriculum through the U.S. Job Corps in Oneonta, NY. Applicants from around the country were selected to participate, and the inaugural deployment was so successful that the Job Corps is already preparing to expand on the program.

“SkyOp has allowed us at the Oneonta Job Corps to take our drone pilot training to the next flight level,” says Director Chris Kuhn, Academy Director, Oneonta Job Corps Academy. “When it comes to getting jobs, learning to fly a drone is just the beginning. The SkyOp program goes way beyond preparing students for the
FAA Part 107 Remote Pilot exam to include various flight applications, data collection practices and understanding the useful work drones can deliver. Our graduates will be a step ahead of the others thanks to SkyOp.”

To learn more about the SkyOp ready-to-deploy drone curriculum and how it could benefit institutional high school, STEM, CTE and P-Tech programs, please visit: https://www.skyop.com/training-solutions/stem-cte-ptech/.

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​SkyOp is a GENIUS NY 2017 Finalist.