There are presently two methods of gaining FAA authorization to fly civil (non-governmental) UAS:
Until recently it was immensely difficult to fly a drone for commercial purposes in the US, at least legally. At the start of 2015 just a dozen companies had been granted special exemptions by the FAA to fly, and most of those were for filming on a closed set. The first half of 2015, however, has seen an eruption of new businesses given permission to fly. Over 900 FAA exemptions to fly drones have been handed out to farmers, railroads, security services, and medical facilities.
Enterprise and large employers are paying up for drone pilots -- about $50 an hour, or over $100,000 a year -- according to Al Palmer, director of the center for Unmanned Aircraft Systems at the University of North Dakota.
Amazon (AMZN, Tech30) is looking for engineers to help test and develop Prime Air, its drone delivery service. Facebook is bulking up its drone team. Amazon has said it wants to use drones to deliver small packages over short distances. And Google acquired Titan Aerospace, which makes high-altitude, solar-powered drones.
A agriculture firm in Michigan, a builder performing roof inspection from Kansas, a company monitoring explosive charges based in Colorado, a security firm conducting surveillance over private property in Florida, these are just a handful of the businesses now allowed to fly drones over US soil.
The Drone Exemptions Database: (Companies Using Drone)
Who is offering Training?
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University's Daytona Beach campus started only three years ago with about 11 students and that has grown to about 230 students just in that three-year period. Embry-Riddle is one of a small but growing group of colleges and universities offering a degree in unmanned aircraft systems, or UAS. The schools have launched the programs expecting a bump in demand for the engineers needed to design drones and operators needed to run them.
Sources:
http://dronecenter.bard.edu/about/ - Center for the study of the Drone at Bard College
http://www.nbcnews.com/tech/innovation/
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