AviTrader_Monthly_MRO_e-Magazine_2017-10

Cover story: Maintenance technical training
21
Hands
on tools
Magnetic MRO has started a joint venture with Estonian Aviation Academy.
Photo: Magnetic MRO
The squeeze in the availability of future highly technical professionals in the aircraft maintenance
industry creates a huge need for skilled and qualified specialists. Keith Mwanalushi reports.
F
or several years the MRO industry has voiced concerns that the
pool of maintenance technicians is drying up and not enough
new talent is entering the profession.
AAR has developed a best practices approach to maintenance technical
training, forming public-private partnerships with two- and fouryear
colleges, and aviation technical schools located near its five
MROs in North America.
AAR has created a special job classification called ‘Support Technician’
that allows trainees to perform non-technical skills under the mentorship
of a licensed A&P mechanic for 18 months. “In that timespan,
they gain valuable training that greatly enhances their prospects of
passing the test to become FAA airframe-certified,” declares Greg Dellinger,
AAR’s Director of Talent Acquisition Strategy.
Dellinger believes the talent crisis for the aviation industry is a legacy.
“We recognised that the looming skills gap is in many ways tied to a
vocational education gap that began to widen after de-industrialisation
in the 1980s.”
He says the lack of support for vocational education negatively impacts
the growth of companies that rely on skilled labour requiring specialised
training and certifications but not necessarily a four-year bachelor’s
degree. “It also shuts thousands of young people out of aviation
services jobs that could lift them into the middle class. We believe our
schools need to present STEM [Science, Technology, Engineering, and
Mathematics] careers more expansively and reject the stigma attached
to hands-on skilled labour required for middle-income careers,” states
Dellinger.
Rubin Siddique, CEO Lufthansa Technical Training (LTT) says their
course portfolio currently covers a wide range of maintenance trainings.
“It all starts with our vocational training programme for young
apprentices which is conducted together with Lufthansa Technik.
Also on offer are a variety of basic training courses such as EASA CAT
A or CAT B courses but also trainings focused on aircraft structures,
engines and components. Siddique says the next element of their Type
Trainings cover all Airbus types including A320NEO and A350 and
most Boeing types. “We are very proud that LTT has been named the
exclusive authorised training provider for the Bombardier C Series aircraft.
And finally we round off our portfolio by conducting competence
trainings such as human factors, aviation legislation or certain airworthiness
and maintenance courses,” says Siddique.
Siddique fully recognises that a shortage of skilled workforce might
threaten the prosperous development of the MRO industry and in the
Western part of Europe the problem will be fuelled above all by demographics.
AviTrader MRO - October 2017