Antelope Valley College is developing the curriculum for its first-ever bachelor degree program for students seeking careers in the aviation industry. The Lancaster school was one of 15 community colleges in the state chosen to participate in a pilot bachelor’s program by the California Community Colleges Chancellors Office. Antelope Valley College will offer a bachelor’s degree in Airframe Manufacturing Technology. Students will learn the major processes of manufacturing the structural components of an aircraft to civilian and military specifications. College President Ed Knudson said the program will address skills needed at aerospace companies, the long dominant industry in the Antelope Valley. Northrop Grumman Corp., Lockheed Martin Corp., and Boeing Co. all have facilities there. “To serve that industry is good for the college and good for the region,” Knudson said. The school will begin offering the program in fall 2016 to give it enough time to write and develop a curriculum, have it approved by the state and make sure that it meets the requirements for accreditation. Also, the school needs to line up equipment and a location for classes. “We do have a lot of the facilities and equipment in place but we will have to supplement that with some new stuff,” Knudson said. The college already offers associate degree programs for airframe and powerplant technicians, aircraft fabrication and assembly technicians. Graduates of those programs will likely want to come back for the additional training, Knudson believes. “We will have graduating classes fairly quickly,” he added. The chancellor’s office estimates the cost of the four-year degree will be about $10,000. Antelope Valley College was one of 34 schools applying to participate in the pilot program. A group of representatives from the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office, the University of California, the California Department of Education, the businesses and community college administrators chose the schools for the bachelor’s program. Criteria included geographic distribution, diversity of degrees, ability of the district to establish a program in their proposed field and whether the proposed program meets an unaddressed need in the local or statewide workforce. The state chancellor’s office will evaluate the Antelope Valley College degree program in 2020 and determine whether to keep it, alter it or expand it to the schools. Vicki Medina, executive director of the Antelope Valley Board of Trade, a Lancaster business group, said the group’s 39 directors all supported the college’s application for the program. “With plans for upper division work study and internships, graduates should be well prepared to step into skilled manufacturing jobs,” Medina said.