Japan’s first drone high school course to begin next year, teaches piloting, law, and more

On Aug 2, private high school Vantan announced that they would be beginning a Drone & Robotics Course in April of next year. It is a full-time three-year course that will teach the ins and outs of working and maintaining drones and other robots.

Vantan believes that there is a serious drought of human resources to handle the steadily increasing demand for skilled drone engineers in Japan. Their curriculum includes drone piloting, maintenance and inspection; aviation and radio laws; and computer programming for system upgrades.

Vantan estimates that both the robotics and drone markets will expand by around 600 percent in the next five years.

In Japan, high schools aren’t compulsory like in other countries, which allows some flexibility in the style of teaching offered, such as Vantan’s specialized, vocational-school-like approach. However, unlike an actual vocational school, Vantan has a high school environment and structure that provides a slower and more in-depth education.

The Drone & Robotics Course is also the latest in Vantan’s line-up of trendy courses which include Skate[board] & Design, Modeling, Voice Acting, Game Creation, Barista training, and nail art.

The first Drone & Robotics Course held next spring is open to graduating junior high students, current Vantan students, or other high school students who wish to transfer. Unfortunately, for adults who want to enter this burgeoning field this course is unavailable, but Vantan will also be offering a separate six-month Drone Pilot and Aerial Course.

This more streamlined course will be held once a week, teaching the more practical aspects of drone usage such as piloting and photography – in other words, all the fun stuff.

It sure beats accounting and social studies, and unlike other fun sounding subjects, Drone & Robotics seems like one of those rare courses that are both fun and likely to lead to a good career down the road.

Sources: Vantan, @Nifty, My Game News Flash

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© Japan Today