Program

Future Professional Pilots (Associate Degree)


DOMESTIC APPLICATIONS

Summer 2024:  Apply Now! 

Fall 2024:  Apply Now! 

Winter 2025:  Apply Now!

On Education Planner BC select the program "Arts for Future Professional Pilots - Associate Degree"

Faculty
Humanities & Social Sciences
Department
Interdisciplinary HSS
Credits
60.00
Length of Program
Four semesters
Credential Type
Associate Degree
Admission Type
Open Enrolment - General Admission Requirements

Overview

Get ready to achieve your dreams at 40,000 feet. In the Associate of Arts for Future Professional Pilots program, you'll take courses that are university-transferable and are relevant to the aviation industry, such as geography courses relating to climate and weather, as well as psychology and business courses.  

This program is jointly offered with Professional Flight Centre, at Boundary Bay Airport in Delta. Douglas provides the academic instruction leading to the Associate of Arts Degree, while the Professional Flight Centre provides the ground and flying instruction, offering enough flight experience to allow you to obtain a Commercial Pilot License and Multi-Engine Instrument Rating. These components together will provide you with the foundation you need for a career in the aviation industry. 

Please note that you will need to apply separately to both Douglas and the Professional Flight Centre. 

Admissions Requirements

Cost

Calculate your tuition and see the approximate cost of taking your program at Douglas College with the tuition & fee estimator. See costs broken down into categories including tuition fees, textbooks, student activity fees, U-Pass and more. 

For more information, refer to the tuition fee charts

Program Requirements

Curriculum Framework

Graduation requirements:

  • Successful completion of 60 University Transfer credits. A University Transferable course is a course that transfers to one of the Research Universities - SFU, UBC (UBCV or UBCO), UNBC, or UVIC in the BC Transfer Guide.
  • Require a minimum program GPA of 2.00
  • 50% (30 credits) of all coursework must be completed at Douglas College
  • Time limit to complete program graduation requirements: seven (7) years

Discussions with professional pilots and flight instructors suggest that students would be well advised to take courses in Climate, Psychology, and Commerce/Business as part of their Associate of Arts (AA) degree.

Students should select their courses towards the Associate of Arts Degree strategically based on their intended transfer destination and major if that is their intended pathway.

Recommended Courses

The program identifies a set of recommended courses:

  • GEOG 1110 Weather and Climate
  • GEOG 1120 Earth Sciences
  • GEOG 2251 Quantitative Methods in Geography
  • PHIL 1101 Critical Thinking
  • PSYC 1100 Introduction to Psychology I
  • PSYC 1200 Introduction to Psychology II
  • GEOG 2251 Quantitative Methods in Geography (meets the AA statistics elective requirement)
  • Two UT courses from the Faculty of Commerce and Business, such as:  
    • BUSN 1210 – Management Essentials (prerequisite for BUSN 3310)
    • BUSN 3310 – Organization Management Skills
    • BUSN 3350 – Human Resource Management
    • MARK  1120 –Introduction to Marketing

GEOG 2210 (Climatology) and PSYC 2360 (Cognitive Psychology) are recommended at the second year level.

 

The following are the general requirements for an Associate of Arts Degree at any B.C. college:

6 credits first-year English* electives

6 credits Humanities** electives

6 credits Social Sciences** electives

6 credits Arts** electives

18 credits second-year Arts** electives in 2 or more subject areas

3 credits Lab Science elective

3 credits Math, Statistics or Computing Science elective

3 credits Math, Statistics or Science elective

9 credits other University Transfer electives

Notes: 

*English courses can include courses in written Communications (CMNS) and Creative Writing (CRWR) that transfer to one of the B.C. research universities (SFU, UBC, UVic, or UNBC) as English credit. A maximum of 3 credits can come from such an equivalent; at least 3 credits must be earned in an actual ENGL course, so-named. For purposes of the Associate of Arts degree, English courses cannot be counted as Humanities courses.

** Arts courses are available in the Faculty of Languages, Literature, and Performing Arts, and the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences. To confirm whether a course is designated as "humanities" or "social sciences", check the Associate of Arts Degree Graduation Requirement Checklist. Courses in Economics and Mathematics also may be used as Arts electives toward an Associate of Arts Degree.

Definitions

A course is defined by the subject for which it is granted transfer credit at one of the research universities (SFU, UBC, UNBC, or UVic).

  1. An Arts course is defined as any course in a subject area for which there is a Baccalaureate of Arts Degree at one of the research universities.
  2. A Science course is defined as any course in a subject area for which there is a Baccalaureate of Science Degree or Baccalaureate of Applied Science Degree at one of the research universities. 
    The requirements specified above are intended to provide breadth of exposure to a variety of disciplines in both Arts and Sciences. In some instances there may be some ambiguity as to whether a course is in the Humanities or Social Sciences and is an Arts course or a Science course. Most Physical Geography and Mathematics would be designated as Science courses.
  3. A course in an "other" area is defined as any course in a subject area for which there is a Baccalaureate Degree other than in Arts, Science or Applied Science at one of the research universities.
  4. first-year course is defined as a course that has assigned or unassigned transfer credit at the 100-level at one of the research universities.
  5. second-year course is defined as a course that has assigned or unassigned transfer credit at the 200-level or higher level at one of the research universities.
  6. laboratory science course is one in which a substantial component of instruction involves the study of natural phenomena, either in the laboratory or in the field.

Program Guidelines

Program Guidelines for previous years are viewable by selecting the version desired. If you took this program and do not see a listing for the starting semester / year of the program, consider the previous version as the applicable version.