Instructor shortage - advanced training
Ok, so there's been a bit of talk on these forums about the instructor shortage, removing the need for a CPL to get paid for instructing, and so on. PPL instructors and schools will no doubt be following the debate closely, and there are several ideas and thoughts being banded around.....
But what about advanced training - ME, CPL, IR? The bouyant airline job market means that very few instructors are sticking around long enough to gain the necessary qualifications for these roles. I know of several schools who are looking for good, full-time experienced, well-qualified instructors, but there are none around.
Instructing at this level is a viable career. Salaries may not match those of a long-haul captain, but they certainly rival FO salaries, and are probably universally better than initial salaries for new FOs. Plus the hours are more sociable, and the work is, arguably, more interesting!
I can think of a few possible places full-time instructors can come from:
- Airline pilot wannabe PPL instructor. How can we convince PPL instructors to remain in instruction, rather than taking the first airline job that comes along?
- Current air-taxi, etc, pilots with MEP experience would have plenty of relevant experience to pass on to students, although their lack of instructing time would prevent them from teaching CPL courses initially. How can we attract these experienced pilots into instructing?
- Airline pilots have lots of experience to pass on to wannabe airline pilots, although their experience is not immediately quite so relevant to the instructing we're talking about as a current MEP pilot.
So how do we get the message through to these people that there is a career in instructing? Are there other avenues I haven't thought of???
FFF
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