JOHNSTOWN — A new course this fall at Pennsylvania Highlands Community College will qualify students for a private pilot’s license and represents the first step in creating a broader aviation technology and professional pilot program, leaders say.

“It advances our mission by responding to community need and creating opportunities in the area,” said Edward C. “Ted” Nichols, vice president and dean of academic affairs, announcing the course in partnership with the MountainTop Technologies Inc. subsidiary MTT Aviation Services.

“This region doesn’t have anything like this,” MTT Aviation chief flight instructor Jared Shuke said.

The first six-credit course will include ground school and flight training, or in academic terms, theory and lab components. It is certified under Federal Aviation Administration Part 141 regulations, which is more structured and regulated than the Part 61 flight school currently offered to the public at MTT, Shuke explained.

The certification and association with Pennsylvania Highlands opens the training for financial assistance and GI Bill financing for education.

“We can’t do GI Bill training unless we have 141 certification on the wall,” Shuke said.

Beginning this fall, students can enroll in the pilot training course as part of a larger program of technologies studies.

But in the fall of next year, the college and MTT expect to have a specific aviation technology program in place.

“It depends on where we decide to go with the program,” MTT Aviation Chairman Eric Fyock said. “There are steps and there are more steps.”

Developing advanced courses may have to wait until students have the preparatory courses completed, he explained.

“Jared and I worked together to develop a college course syllabus,” Nichols said. “It was  reviewed by the faculty at Penn Highlands.”

The initial course and proposed courses are being developed in communication with other colleges and universities that have aviation technology programs. Shuke and Nichols believe Penn Highland credits will transfer to most other programs.

Penn Highlands and MTT Aviation are particularly interested in collaborating with Community College of Beaver County, which offers aerospace management, air traffic control and professional pilot programs. Students could start in Johnstown and complete their education in Beaver Falls, Shuke said.

MTT’s experienced flight instructors will go beyond the book, Shuke said.

“We are going to tell stories, situations with the weather,” he said. “We want them to learn real-life situations. We are telling them what they need to know to be safe pilots.”

The collaboration with MTT is the latest in Penn Highlands’ corporate partnerships.

Welders train with JWF Industries and culinary students train with Crown American, Nichols said.

“Those are very applied fields,” Nichols said. “Engaging the college with the community: That is what makes a community college.”

MTT Aviation will reap benefits at several levels, Fyock said.

Besides sharing the company’s passion for aviation, MTT will be paid for the use of its aircraft and flight instructors. Long-term benefits come from creating more licensed pilots.

“It means they come and hang out at the airport more often,” Fyock said. “We have hopes that the new pilots get their own aircraft and fly around here.”

MTT provides fuel sales, maintenance and hangar leases at the John Murtha Johnstown-Cambria County Airport. In addition, the airport authority is pushing to get more tenants in its county-owned hangars, Fyock noted.

“It benefits everybody,” Shuke said.