Another article on the shortages of LAE's from the latest edition of the ALAE Tech Log magazine (
http://www.lae.mcmail.com )
Royal Aeronautical Society Seminar
A group of Members attended a seminar on February 22nd at RAES Headquarters in London.
Keith Rogers gives us his report.
The subject was ' The Report of the RAES Aircraft Maintenance Engineering Task Force', which stemmed from a previous paper entitled 'The Challenge for the Future in 'Aircraft Engineering'. (This was reported by Mike Newman in issue number 250 - June)
The remit of the task force was to investigate the shortfall in the numbers of Licensed Aircraft Engineers and mechanics and
the reasons why.
The President Elect of the RAES, Trevor Trueman, welcomed everybody and introduced the speakers. The opening speech was given by Sir Malcolm Field, Chairman of the CAA. He gave an insight into the shortages, the causes and the problems the industry could face in the future. The next speaker, Roland Fairfield, a consultant and RAeS council member, illuminated Sir Malcolm's speech with various statistics shown on overhead projections. I have to thank him for allowing me to use some of them here. There followed speeches by Phil Hosey, Director of Quality at Fls Aerospace. John Parkinson, EC Relations Manager - Aviation Group of the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions, who was there to express the
Government's concern and suggest what they might be able to do to help.
So - what is the problem? It has been established that there is a growing shortage of LAE's and skilled workers in an expanding industry. The reasons are far ranging and can be seen below;
1) Decline of the UK's industrial and manufacturing base (many skilled workers were drawn into the industry from companies
such as Avro. de Haviland. Hawker, Vickers and Scottish Aviation. Because of the demise of such companies, there is now a gave shortage of skilled sheet metal workers)
2) The peace dividend which means the armed forces are contracting in size and so there are far fewer highly trained engineers leaving and wanting to continue in civil aviation. (These first two have been traditional recruiting grounds for the civil
aircraft engineering industry.)
3) National and international economics which have caused companies:
(a) to contract, cut their costs etc to remain competitive
(b) not to invest in their workforce through training and apprenticeships
(c) to operate with the minimum number of engineers in order to keep costs down, but at the same time increasing their
workload
4) Changing society - where the national education curriculum reflects the changing industrial base of the country and the
skilled artisan is now the person who understands computers and finance, where people want to make a quick buck for
minimum effort instead of spending long years in training for a job where they get their hands dirty whilst working in unsociable
conditions.
5) The industry does not promote itself.
SOME FACTS AND FIGURES
It has been calculated that the percentage shortfall of licensed aircraft engineers in the industry, including general aviation, are
as follows:
% SHORTFALL NOW NEXT YEAR
Licensed Avionics Engineers
16.3 16.1 (131)
Licensed Mechanical Engineers
7.0 10.1 (216)
Licensed Avionics Engineers
(excluding British Airways)
23.0 23.0
Licensed Mechanical Engineers
(excluding British Airways)
10.0 14.8
The figures above are for the industry as a whole and so include General Aviation. Because BA has the highest utilisation
of LAE's in the industry, the second set of figures have been given to Show, a more representative picture of the industry.
Over the last five years the number of new licensed engineers has averaged 87, which is equivalent to less than 1% of the
total 11,500 CAA AMEL holders at the end of 1998. Of the 11,500 30% reside overseas, 14% are over 60 years of age and 6% are in non-certifying positions.
The number of LAE's in the industry over the past 15 years has remained fairly constant at around 8-9000, whereas the number of aircraft has increased from 7000 to 14000. Last year saw for the first time, the number of large aircraft exceed the number of small aircraft. This can be evidenced in the number of start up airlines like Easyjet, GO. Buzz etc.
The industry has been in a spiral of decline over the past 15 years, companies have had to cut costs, training has been reduced, salaries have been reduced comparatively (up to a few y ears ago the salaries of aircrew and LAE's ran almost parallel, but now aircrew salaries are climbing away), staff have become disillusioned, morale has sunk-. LAE's have left the industry altogether or have become nomadic in search of higher rewards. Those who remain have been asked to do more and more (often through excessive amounts of overtime, which in the long term may increase sickness and stress rates) and
the number of maintenance related incidents has increased.
The message that came out of the seminar was quite clear. The industry has to do something to put itself on the night track.
Nobody, else can rectify the situation. It is a case of 'physician heal thyself'. Sir Malcolm made it clear that any companies
which did not have enough LAE's would be shut down or their operation suspended. So what can be done?
1) Companies should promote their engineering divisions in schools, colleges and within the careers advisory services.
2) Companies should make a job in the aero engineering industry more attractive.
3) Companies should invest in their engineering departments with more training especially more modem type
apprenticeships
4) They must have a good salary structure, which recognises the responsibility of LAE's
5) They must have a well-defined career structure, which, with item 4, will go towards improving the status of Licensed Aircraft Engineers.
John Parkinson of the DETR stated that while he could not reveal what their recommendation to the government would be, he said that they had been looking at way s of providing a legislative frame work which will persuade employers to recruit at ab-initio level. They had also been looking at funding of training. There should be no VAT on training or it should be recoverable. He indicated there was possible scope for Government to assist the industry to make it more attractive.
Keith Rogers
[This message has been edited by spannersatcx (edited 14 May 2000).]