Aviation – an obvious career choice?

But the spark of interest that gets people started in the industry is so often the original enthusiasm for flight itself – with the business side being driven as a means of supporting an expensive ‘habit’. It is the ‘itch that can’t be scratched’ that probably drives a lot of people into an industry that can be so rewarding for so long.

It seems there are at least two key issues involved – the lack of a concerted program to push aviation as a viable and visible career choice for school leavers and the lack of a program to continually introduce young people to aviation by capturing their imagination, firing their enthusiasm and facilitating a taste of how good aviation can be. One is the message and the other the means.

The underlying ‘people’ difficulty is that industry – all sectors – have never mounted a cooperative headline marketing exercise that puts aviation in front of school-leavers as an exciting career choice. Many individuals and companies have tried on their own with careers expos and local schools but in a cluttered market, aviation may not make it onto the table, let alone into the final decision process.

While the careers booklet produced by the Transport and Logistics Centre covered aviation briefly, it was in the same space competing with other transport sectors and did little to fire the imagination. It also doesn’t appear to be getting into the hands of high school careers advisers, much less leading to aviation being pushed as a good career option.

The key question for the industry is how long can we sustain ourselves without direct engagement and competition for the hearts and minds of potential pilots, engineers, support staff, managers and entrepreneurs?

A useful indicator is the Government training benchmark for accessing 457 visas for skilled immigrants. Before being eligible to bring someone in from overseas, companies must be applying the equivalent of 1% of their payroll to training Australians. How many general aviation companies would meet that target?

Many operators have complained about the lack of new blood in the ag industry in the post-drought rebuilding phase. When questioned about whether they have a suitable aircraft in the company and whether they are willing to supervise Ag IIs through their first 110 hours (as required by CASA and supported by AAAA), silence is often the reply.

Without a personal commitment to introducing young people to aviation and providing opportunities for them to gather appropriate experience it is little wonder we have a skills shortage.

Yes, there are a lot of factors at play here – the costs of employing any new staff, the debilitating effects of eight years of drought, the loss of appeal in the face of computers and other ‘exciting’ careers, the lack of financial return on significant investment in the short term for attainment of an aviation qualification – but the underlying lack of commitment of many already in the industry to training, mentoring and support of our young professionals and potential professionals remains at the core of the issue.

AAAA recently identified the long list of challenges – financial, regulatory and administrative – an individual faces before they can become a productive aerial application pilot. In a detailed submission to the current Senate Inquiry into pilot training, AAAA outlined how difficult and expensive it is to produce an ag pilot – both for operators, trainers and the pilots.

While there is no silver bullet solution – although access to Government programs for training and education would help – there is also no industry plan to improve the current situation – until now.

At a recent meeting of general aviation associations – a by product of the successful Australian Aviation Associations Forum – development of a strategy was commenced aimed at revitalising general aviation in Australia. Hopefully this signals a new start on putting aviation up as an exciting and rewarding career.

Bottom line – we need both an industry wide and a personal commitment to bring new people into aviation.