The University of North Dakota (UND) has partnered with United Airlines to create a career pipeline program for its flight students. Through the Career Pathway Program (CPP), graduates of UND’s Professional Flight Program now have a direct path to United’s regional partners. Assuming they meet CPP requirements both during school and after graduating, students who complete the program are placed in the first available spot in a United new hire class.
To be eligible for the program, CPP participants need to be active, full-time students in UND’s Professional Flight Program, maintain a 3.0 cumulative GPA or better and successfully complete an interview with United. When it comes to the actual hiring, graduates must meet CPP program exit requirements, which vary between United Express CPP partners. All students are required to put in 150 hours as a multi-engine instructor at UND before United can hire them through CPP.
According to UND, students participating in the program can apply to other airlines—or even to United through other methods—and still remain eligible for the United CPP. UND has pathway partnership agreements with several other airlines including JetBlue, SkyWest and ExpressJet. Each partnership has different requirements and expectations, which can be found on UND’s website.
