Yes, Instructors should be paid more…but let me play Devils Advocate for a moment and… career instructors, this does NOT apply to you!
Lets accept that, in the main,'non career' instructors are instructing as part of an overall plan to become acceptable for Airline employment. They will have paid around £30k to have reached the stage where they can instruct. They will have paid this out without any help from the government, help which would be given to any other student studying for even worthless degrees or qualifications.
They will have seen NVQ disappear, VAT being charged on training, paid for dental treatment etc etc, and as yet, no one has taken the Government to court for unfair treatment!.
And then, when a flying school gives us the opportunity to gain the appropriate hours, an instructor, we will then go on to spend additional thousands of £’s to gain an IR (no NVQ, plus VAT and not even access to a Personal Learning Account). With this in hand, given half a chance, it’s out the door as fast as it opens!
Now it ‘could ‘ be argued that organisations like Tayside are being used as free access to one of the many elements required to get an Airline job… HOURS, the other elements we seem to happily pay for.
Lets face it (and remember I’m playing Devils Advocate here!), Flying schools are being used, by many, as a stepping stone, and don’t expect, or receive, loyalty or long term commitment. They give us the hour building we need. They don’t charge us for it, in fact they even give us ‘some’ money!
We have paid for every other piece of required hour building, why should this be any different
We need/want to log about 1,000hrs. That would cost about £100,000.00!
Therefore, it could be argued that if we can gain these hours over 2 years as an instructor, with a pathetic salary of £10k pa we will have ‘earned’ £60k pa!!… Yes, I know its not as clear cut and simple as that!
The fact of the matter is that just as we become an experienced instructors we are off as soon as the opportunity arises…an employers nightmare.
It’s a two way thing. The school gives us the logged hours we require to leave and get an Airline job, and in return we share our passion for flying with members of the club. Not unreasonable you might say.
Now, the downside of all this is that those who want to instruct for a living can’t, because the pay is pathetic and employers won’t risk investing in long term staff.. they don’t need to!. Even commercial schools suffer from instructors who are clearly just passing through. Our own WWW only lasted under a year in Spain before jumping at a chance of what he clearly always intended to do (well done WWW by the way!)
So who’s using who?
So there we go. I would stress that the above is not necessarily my view on life. I too intend to instruct in the coming year and would even consider that as a career, IF the pay was fair.
(blue touch paper lit…and standing VERY well back!)
