Opinion: How to fix our shortage of engineers

The RAAA’s CEO talks through his organisation’s new report that examines the causes and solutions to the industry’s talent crisis.

It’s been the silent shortage, the one that media outlets and others have ignored. The shortage of Licenced Aircraft Maintenance Engineers (LAMEs) is not a surprise to those who work in aircraft engineering, and, as I’ve been told, it’s been an issue since the 1990s, especially in general aviation and regional airlines.

There’s a myriad of reasons that we face the shortages of LAMEs today, and our investigation has focused on more recent years, especially since the introduction of CASR Part 66 in 2011. The aim of the report is not to try and fix everything but, most importantly, to provide achievable solutions for government. To be honest, as a pilot, I found it incredibly confusing trying to understand the issues at hand. Pilot training is quite straightforward. Why isn’t engineer training? It was a case of scratching the surface and seeing what a mess lay beneath.