Skilling up

Pilots

A leading worldwide provider of pilots to major airlines such as QantasLink, Jetstar, Easyjet and British Airways, Oxford Aviation Academy (OAA), whose Australian arm is based at Melbourne’s Moorabbin Airport, takes a cautious approach in its assessment of the Australian pilot training sector.

“Globally the market is fairly solid.

We’re seeing a lot of demand in Asia for pilots, both for our training and for our Parc resourcing division. So there’s a strong demand. Whether we can meet that skills gap from initial training right through to the experience that the airlines are looking for, that’s something we have to work on in the coming months and years,” said OAA’s head of sales and innovation, Pablo Mueller.

“Where’s it heading? Well it’s heading into providing pilot training for airlines both domestically and overseas, and providing pilot training for domestic general aviation, depending on CASA’s take on the Senate report as to where pilots will be flying in the future,” Mueller noted.

Of significance, the recent Senate inquiry into Pilot Training and Airline Safety recommended that copilots on jet airliners such as A320s and 737s and larger hold an ATPL licence with 1500 hours flying experience.

(See separate article p26 this issue. ) “If the recommendation of 1500 hours or the ATPL licence requirement was passed, it would certainly diminish or reduce the options that graduates from commercial pilot’s licence courses would have in Australia,” Mueller said.

“It would require everyone to route through the general aviation system, and through the regional carriers that are still allowed to run lower hour pilots in regular public transport operations, as well as overseas airline carriers. ” As the approved training provider for QantasLink, Jetstar and Swinburne University students, OAA currently runs both ab initio and cadet schemes for Australian trainee pilots. For QantasLink cadets, Oxford provides end of standardisation, multicrew and jet orientation training, while a Dash 8 type rating is done by the airline in Sydney.

For Jetstar, OAA runs an 18 month abinitio course and an accelerated 12 week advanced cadet course for pilots who already hold the required qualifications (including a CPL and a multi-engine instrument command rating).

It is Jetstar’s ab initio cadet pilot training scheme that has drawn considerable attention, both from the Senate committee and more broadly in the industry, as graduates can find themselves in the right hand seat of an Airbus A320 with as few as 250 flying hours experience under a competency based training approach.

While admitting that a competencybased training system needs to be tailored towards an airline’s needs, Mueller was quick to dispel any concerns over Oxford and Jetstar’s program, arguing that cadet pilot schemes are the only valid pathway for European airlines, which commonly fly with low hour pilots as first officers (FOs).

“Let me put it this way, the measure of an hour to the public and to the media is a very simple measure – hours mean experience.

But…having flown 1500 hours in a light aircraft under VFR conditions, up and down over the same airport. . . is that experience? There may be some experiences along the way that are beneficial, and I’m not saying it’s a bad career choice.

I’m saying, what benefits does it have for flying, say, an Airbus A320 on approach to Perth in instrument conditions?” Mueller questioned.

Mueller also questioned the economic viability of training institutions being able to give cadet pilots 1500 hours flying experience before graduating on to large capacity airliners such as the A320, and said that OAA would have to look at other options if CASA implemented the Senate recommendation.

“We’d have to adjust. . . It would have to be tailored towards the general aviation industry rather than the airline industry domestically, because that is where the graduates would be employed through.

And will there be enough places in general aviation to accommodate that amount of graduates?” he said.

The increased flying hours recommendation aside, Mueller said Oxford was largely supportive of other proposals put forward by the Senate inquiry, such as a requirement for formal, multi-crew training to be implemented.

“We think that this is a major improvement towards airline pilot safety that has come out of the report,” he said.

“The recommendation to mandate multicrew training is an absolutely crucial and essential component to enhance airline safety,” Mueller noted, adding that formal training for pilots not used to a two-crew aircraft type environment is vital for both effective communication and safe operation in an airliner cockpit.

While the Jetstar/Oxford cadet scheme has generated much attention, the traditional path into the right hand seat of a jet airliner remains through the regional airlines, with Regional Aviation Association of Australia (RAAA) CEO Paul Tyrrell giving a mixed assessment of the current state of pilot training and recruitment.

“It’s an interesting picture. Regional aviation is where a lot of pilots start their careers, so there’s a couple of challenges in that. Firstly, it’s terrific to have young people with us and a lot of them are trained up eventually to captain level on regional airlines, and that’s historically a traditional role of regional aviation. The other side of that coin though is that as soon as they’re trained up, when there’s a high demand for pilots, of course they’re snapped up by the major carriers,” Tyrrell explained.

“The downside is of course you spend a lot of money on their training and then you don’t get that investment back. ” The big airlines ‘poaching’ pilots is a strong concern, with Tyrrell estimating that regional carriers typically deal with a manageable 25 per cent turnover rate during a period of slow demand for experienced pilots (usually captains), but can have anywhere up to an 80 per cent turnover rate in times of high demand. The end result causes a downward spiral effect, with regional airlines themselves forced to poach pilots from the general aviation sector, including charter and tourism operators.

“It’s a difficult thing. I know the operators of both the airlines and the charter operations don’t like just to go and willy-nilly poach pilots, there’s sort of a reluctance – they know how it feels. The majors don’t have that same reluctance,” noted Tyrrell.

Two ways in which Tyrrell sees regional operators adjusting to the problem are active nationwide and overseas recruitment processes and the establishment of flights schools tied to the airline. Regional airline pilot cadet schemes have grown in prominence in recent years, with the Australian Airline Pilot Academy (AAPA) run by Regional Express at Wagga and Sharp Airlines’ Cadet Pilot Program based at Hamilton, Victoria.

“They [regional airline flight schools] basically train the people right from, if you like ab initio, and then they retain them as long as they can through various schemes.

So we also not just inherit new pilots but we train them as well through sometimes our own facilities,” Tyrrell said.

While offering numerous benefits in pilot recruitment, retention and training, there is also some risk and costs in regional airlines operating their own flight schools. According to Tyrrell, over-investment and unrecoverable sunk capital costs in new facilities and aircraftare the obvious issues when demand is low. However, the flipside is surety of supply, where the airline makes a contribution towards the cost of the pilots’ training in return for a return of service obligation for a certain number of years.

Having enough flying instructors is another key issue.

“If we go one step along the line to the instructor level, that’s becoming quite critical,” he said, categorising the GA instructor as an “absolutely vital cog in the whole spectrum of the industry”.

“We really need to encourage two things – people to take up a professional career as an instructor and secondly, maybe make it easier for some experienced pilots to join the instructor ranks without tying them up in knots later in their careers. ” Overall, a move away from the “traditional flying club path” is how Tyrrell assesses the future of the regional pilot training industry. University linked flight schools are also increasingly important players, with the advantage of the federal government’s VET FEE-HELP scheme which tends to favour tertiary institutions over stand-alone flight schools.

“The university flight schools and flight training is quite entrenched in the Australian scene, and I expect that trend to grow. I think the flight schools attached to airlines will stay, but it’s probably hard for other [regional] airlines to establish their own flight schools. What they’ll probably do is form alliances with an airline that has its own flight school and maybe put their candidates through that,” he said.

Engineering

For aircraft maintenance engineers there has been a recognised skills shortage for some time, but another challenge is the recent introduction of new EASA-type regulations by CASA.

Of particular concern is CASA’s recent introduction of new maintenance regulations for regular public transport (RPT) operations, covering airworthiness requirements (Part 42), approved maintenance organisations (Part 145), maintenance personnel licensing (Part 66) and maintenance training organisations (Part 147) from June 27. Modelled on European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) regulations, the recent changes have sparked concern from organisations such as the Aviation Maintenance Repair Overhaul Business Association (AMROBA), who argue that they are overly complicated for both MRO businesses and trade training schools alike.

“We’re in a massive changeover period at this current moment to come to terms with the new licensing system that was introduced, AMROBA executive director Ken Cannane told Australian Aviation.

“From our point of view, we’re a little concerned that we’ve adopted a European licensing system, but they have a higher classroom training factor put into their system than what we’ve got within Australia.

And it’s a real sticking point with us at this current moment about making sure we get the skills on an equal level. ” According to Cannane, the federal government currently funds only about 1800 hours of apprentice training at approved colleges, compared to the European system which requires approximately 3000 hours “in the classroom”. While he concedes CASA may be able to reduce that training time to 2400 hours, Cannane believes a whole of government approach is needed to tackle the issue.

“We’d like to see government get together and broaden, fund and expand the training up another 200 or 300 hours…to cover the aviation industry. We continue to introduce new technology into training programs, but the amount of training hours that are actually being taught hasn’t changed now for a couple of decades,” he said.

A lack of an industry-based engineer training program is also a key concern for AMROBA.

“One of the problems in this changing field, and we’ve raised this on a number of occasions with different government bodies, is that as you put training programs into place, it needs a whole of government approach to ensure that the actual training matches the skill needs of the whole industry, and not the skill needs of an individual business in the industry,” Cannane said.

“If you step down to the next level where you’re talking about general aviation and smaller organisations, they might find it hard to get the training they need, because the majority of people who are in that training facility are going into the airlines.

The training is streamlined down to match the needs of the biggest employer in the local area. ” The uncertainty over the recent regulatory changes has left many AMROBAaligned businesses in a state of limbo, as smaller, third party MRO providers put their apprentice programs on hold while they assess the impact of any additional costs tied to the new licensing requirements as they are rolled out over the next two years.

“Airlines themselves will probably put on extra apprentices because of the additional workloads they’ll encounter, but the other smaller maintenance organisations throughout this country, the majority of them have got most of their apprentice training programs on hold until they actually find out exactly where the new rules are taking them, because of the additional costs,” Cannane said.

One such company which is dealing with the new CASA regulations is leading maintenance and engineer training college Aviation Australia. Businesses manager – technical training Colin Jameson agreed that the new licensing and qualification arrangements would pose a challenge for industry, but believes educating MRO providers on the ramifications of such changes remains key. “That [regulatory change] at the time of a skills shortage, is also something that industry is having to deal with at the moment and we’re assisting with that process as much as we can. We will be conducting a nationwide tour and hold workshops around the country in order to actually assist with those concerns and provide information as to how people… can accommodate for those new qualifications, upskilling requirements and the change in regulation. So that is a consideration at the moment,” Jameson said.

“From our point of view… now that CASA have aligned themselves to the nationally accredited competency based training system…there’s going to be a greater consideration of assessment as a tool, recognition of prior learning as a tool that previously hasn’t been used throughout the industry as much as it is going to be…I see that’s where the industry’s heading now. ” Aside from the new maintenance regulations, both Cannane and Jameson highlight the skills shortage as another pressing concern in the engineering sector. As is the case in the pilot sector, poaching, importing overseas labour and upskilling existing staff are valid options for airlines and operators looking to fill skills gaps. Yet a greater issue is the appeal of more lucrative, non-aviation trades for young apprentices.

“One of the difficulties for an apprentice in this day and age is that when they finish a plumbing apprenticeship for example, they will come out with all of the qualifications normally necessary to become a plumber, and their immediate salary as a plumber can be considerably higher than an aircraft maintenance engineer who comes out as a qualified tradesman,” explained Jameson.

“This is because of the fact that there is an additional tier on an aircraft maintenance engineer. . . which is this licensed qualification across all of the different aircraft, which can take a number of years for them [AMEs] to achieve. So that is one factor that everybody needs to be aware of. And I think that does limit younger people coming into that as an attractive area,” he noted.

Cannane goes one step further, criticising what he deems to be a “complicated” training system that “turns young people off ”.

“In some areas, kids go from school to do 12 months full training with knowledge, but then they’ve got to find employment to pick up the practical experience before they can obtain any qualifications. Employers in the airlines have actually taken up, in most areas, their own training programs to address their own shortages…so I think they’ll be pretty stable over the next couple of years. They’ve admitted that they don’t attract the number of apprentices that they used to in the past, because aviation to a lot of young people today doesn’t have the attraction of what it had to those in the past. ” Still, Jameson points to data showing current apprentice numbers at Aviation Australia in Queensland up over the 100 mark, noting that 95 per cent of 2010 graduates moved on to various airlines, operators or maintenance organisations. In all, 91 per cent of Aviation Australian graduates have moved into the aviation industry since 2002.

In addition, Jameson highlights an aerospace gateway schools program run by the Queensland government, which provides pathways for interested students to engage with industry players (such as Boeing), training institutions and universities in their local area. Seventeen high schools are already a part of the program, which all offer the subject of ‘Aerospace studies’ to students in Years 11 and 12. Units of study are divided into four main areas over the course of the subject, including aeronautics and astronautics, safety management systems, aviation and aerospace business and aviation operations.

In addition to school programs, Cannane adds a further solution to the mix, putting his faith in general aviation as a grass roots provider of future engineers to an industry which is currently lacking them.

“We’re a strong believer that we’ve got to get people back flying aircraft and learning to fly. And that’s what I think is one of the fundamental problems we’ve got in this industry at present,” he said.

“We just don’t have instructor pilots sitting around the countryside like we had 30 years ago. . . To grow the enduring workforce, you’ve got to increase the utilisation of aircraft in this country outside the airline industry.

“If you get into the general aviation side of this country, the utilisation of aircraft is about one quarter to what the same utilisation is in the United States. . . We could have a growing maintenance and engineering industry if we just doubled the current utilisation of general aviation aircraft, and get utilisation back to what it was 15 or 20 years ago. ”Regional aviation needs to grow too, as it is a key provider of pilots and engineers to the industry. As highlighted by both Aviation Australia and AMROBA, the skills shortage and the ageing maintenance engineer workforce are significant problems in regional Australia. This is particularly the case in avionics, where the RAAA’s Tyrrell sees as an area of significant growth.

“The demand has outstripped supply there [in avionics] for a while. It might be adjusting but certainly a year or two ago, avionics engineers were commanding pretty high salaries, compared to other types of engineers, because there’s just so few of them,” he said.

Tyrrell adds that other branches of engineering, such as airframe maintenance, have also experienced high demand from regional airlines who have again recruited from overseas at times to fill their ranks.

To mitigate those problems, Tyrrell cites a strong relationship between the regional airline/operator and locally based training organisations as one potential solution, coupled with better promotion of a career in aircraft engineering throughout the wider community.

“At some of the big skills expos, I know a number of institutions try to attract students into their training courses, and that’s probably something industry needs a little bit more of,” he said.

While major airlines do at times poach engineers from regional operators, “a real concern” for Tyrrell is the issue of an ageing engineer workforce, with the average age of LAMEs now in the mid-50s.

“We really need to encourage a fresh generation of young engineers into our industry. . . We’ve got to do more work in that area. We don’t just want to be importing engineers, we should be growing our own local ones. ” Widely acknowledged by AMROBA, Aviation Australia and the RAAA, a key way to achieving such a goal is through generating awareness among young people considering a career in aviation that a range of professions are needed in the industry to ensure a stable workforce. Indeed, Tyrrell notes it is not the quality of training for apprentice engineers that is the issue, but rather being able to attract quality people to the profession which remains a challenge.

“Overall, to be frank, we’ve got to get the supply numbers right and that’s easy for me to say, but that’s getting out there at the skills expos, getting out into the schools, getting out and talking to young people. The military do it all the time and I think maybe our side of the industry needs to do a bit better on that front,” concluded Tyrrell.

Air Traffic Controllers

Another crucial role in the aviation industry facing pressures is the air traffic controller (ATC). Australia’s air traffic management provider, Airservices, employs over 900 controllers (a large majority of whom work at its en route centres in Brisbane and Melbourne). “Air traffic controllers have traditionally maintained long careers at Airservices with the average tenure at about 17 years. . . However, our primary workforce focus is to manage the forecast increase in retirements and natural attrition, which may result in the loss of around 330 employees from the air traffic control group between 2013 and 2015,” Airservices general manager, air traffic control, Jason Harfield said.

More immediately, forecast losses of up to 200 ATC employees between now and 2013 have seen Airservices continue with plans to recruit between 80 and 100 trainees a year over the coming years at the Airservices Learning Academy (ALA) in Melbourne.

“Airservices is facing the challenge of an ageing workforce and the need to build capacity during this challenging period,” Airservices general manager, people and change, Peter Ward told Australian Aviation.

“In response to our age profile we have seen increases in trainee numbers in recent years, with 118 external ATC trainees, 45 aviation rescue and fire fighting recruits and 45 technical trainees at Riverina Institute of TAFE,” Ward said, adding that competition from the booming mining sector remains a significant obstacle in being able to attract skilled employees into the aviation industry.

Ward says the company’s recruitment process involves several stages, including online cognitive ability assessments, a telephone interview and a full day of testing at an ATC assessment centre.

Once accepted into Airservices, Harfield explains that trainees begin an 18 month Diploma of Aviation/Air Traffic Control at the ALA, in which they will spend between 10 and 11 months studying theory and undergoing simulation training. After completing an intense simulation course, ATC recruits eventually begin ‘on-the job’ training under the supervision of a licensed ATC, before being assessed by a check and standardisation officer. Upon achieving their ATC licence, trainees are then awarded their Diploma.

Currently, Ward estimates “that there are between 60 and 65 en route and tower trainee controllers at any one time” with an average “target success rate” of 80 per cent who eventually graduate to become fully qualified ATCs. However, with the increasing difficulty of finding suitable trainees, Airservices is stepping up its recruitment campaign across a number of fronts. This includes advertising for ATCs through traditional mediums such as newspapers, and also “maximising the use of online and social media”.

“The future of the workforce will be different and one of our major priorities is to re-examine our strategy, recognising that we need to become more diverse and examine the way that we retain and engage our own employees,” Ward concluded. n