A high school in Andover, Massachusetts now offering a program to teach students how to become aircraft mechanics.

At Greater Lawrence Technical School, they have a brand new classroom to teach aviation mechanics. The renovated hangar at Lawrence Airport in North Andover has single engine planes and helicopters that will be part of the hands-on learning. Students will also be trained on flight simulators and other aircraft systems.

The program is currently offering one certificate program approved by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the school is planning to add a second. Administrators said there is a strong demand for airplane mechanics and the program also opens doors for other careers.

"There are opportunities and pathways to work for corporations who build aircraft and corporations that need support in instrumental training, so it's got lots of other pathways," John Lavoie, the superintendent and director of Greater Lawrence Technical School, told WBZ NewsRadio 1030.

It took the school four years to get the program up and running. That's in part because the FAA had to sign off on everything from the curriculum to the instructors. It cost the school about $7 million to buy four planes, a helicopter and the hangars at Lawrence Airport.

It's only the second high school aviation program in Massachusetts - the first is at Jeremiah E. Burke High School in Dorchester, which launched in 2023.

Greater Lawrence Technical School is a regional technical high school that serves students from Andover, North Andover, Lawrence and Methuen.