The fall semester marks the inaugural year for California Baptist University’s new College of Architecture, Visual Art and Design and the Department of Aviation Science.
The architecture program is being headed by Mark Roberson, founding dean of the College of Architecture, Visual Art and Design and professor of architecture.
While the architecture program is at this time “a straightforward architecture program without any specialty paths,” Roberson said, the program will eventually grow to include different focuses. Interior design, landscape
design, urban design and sustainable design are some of the career paths the college leadership plans to develop over the course of the architecture program’s growth and success.
However, with the downturn in the U.S. economy, graduates may face a difficult job market.
“Undergraduate architecture students are reportedly facing 13.9 percent unemployment rates,” said Karissa Rosenfield of Archdaily.com. “Students who have recently graduated with a bachelor’s degree in architecture have experienced the highest rates of unemployment.”
While the job market for an architecture graduate in California is uncertain, the “job
market is much better in other parts of the United States and is very good in other parts of the world such as Canada, China, and parts of the Middle East,” Roberson said.
“Fortunately, our graduates will not be hitting the market until 2018 (at the earliest) and the U.S. Department of Labor is predicting that the architecture market will grow at an 18 percent rate through 2018, which is a higher rate than the national average, so we think the future looks very bright,” Roberson said.
As for the aviation science program, its core curriculum separates into two specific majors: aviation management and professional pilot.
“The aviation management students will graduate with a solid foundation in aviation with a business/management emphasis,” said Dr. C. Daniel Prather, professor and chair of aviation science.
Students who train to become a professional pilot through the program will earn Private Pilot, Commercial Pilot, Instrument Rating, Multi-Engine Rating and Certified Flight Instructor certificates, Prather said. Upon graduation, graduates will have 200-250 hours of flight time completed.
“Boeing predicts that 460,000 new commercial pilots will be needed by 2031,” Prather said. “Of these 69,000 pilots will be needed in North America. More than 185,000 of these pilots will be needed in the Asia-Pacific region, with more than 100,000 needed in Europe.”
Graduates of the aviation management program can expect to find jobs as airport managers and executive directors, in airport operations positions or other positions with the Federal Aviation Administration, Prather said.
Aging workers has led to the growing demand for people with an aviation management degree.
“Airports are confronting retirements of experienced staff and hiring entry-level operations managers and safety and security managers to fill the need left by these retirements,” Prather said.
To find out more about the aviation science and architecture programs at CBU, interested persons can visit www.calbaptist.edu/academics.
