Originally Posted by
krismiler
It’s useful to have the recognition the licence deserves.
Aerial Bus Driver, 1st Class?
When filling in online forms I can only enter “high school” or “other” in the education field. It puts us at a disadvantage and we don’t get credit for our status in applications.
What status? Look I really hate to break it to you, but there is almost nothing in an ATPL learning path that even begins to meet the requirements for an accredited degree in the UK. OK, so there's a lot of stuff to cram - taxi drivers suffer the same (Ealing Broadway to Mornington Crescent when the yellow ball is on the blue diagonal and residential one-way streets are wild), but degrees aren't about cramming information (not beyond 1st year,a t any rate). Manual skills are learned on a full-time craft apprenticeship taking many years, but they don't claim these are degree-level either.
A BA/BSc graduate should be able to assimilate information and experimental/research results, review them and draw conclusions, with some commentary on methods. A Honours Grad should be able to define objectives and conduct the reseach as well, and identify methods to scale sources of error. A Masters Grad should be able to do that plus design the experimental/research methods with a rigorous and quantitative assessment of error sources (scope and scale), plus reflective critque on the defined objectives, methods and data sources. A PhD grad should be able to postulate a "new" piece of knowledge (a principle, theory or conjecture) and then identify methods by which this might be tested, and against what criteria (plus all the other stuff).
An ATPL doesn't even get to the "basic degree level" in this - it's a totally different kind of learning. Sure, an ATPL+TR could expect a high probability of successfully flying and landing a jet in adverse weather with some systems malfunctions*, but that's a manual skill not a something involing higher education. Yes, they can understand, recall and use reams of data (generated by someone else) on airspace categories, air regulations and the systems architecture of their current aeroplane, but that's what taxi-drivers do when they learn "the knowledge".
It's a Profession, but it's not a degree. Get used to it!
* But not today, apparently - because I waited for well over two hours in the terminal before they felt they could manage the weather this morning...
