Thanks guys. As I suspected.
From my own experience, 4 x face-to-face classroom teaching hours per day, 5 days a week (=20 hours active classroom tutoring) doesn't leave an excessive amount of time for setting and marking exams; conducting 1-2-1 coaching; updating or improving TKIs personal knowledge of current subjects; upskilling on a new subject; general administration; and all the 100 other things a salaried employee tends to get roped into outside of normal job description duties (refer to the common employee contractual phrase "and any other duties deemed appropriate by the HT/CEO)
For a TKI contractor, presumably on an hourly or daily rate, I can see the financial advantage of being permitted to deliver as many hours per day as you can stay awake - and sleep when the course finishes!
However, for a salaried employee, some guidance, regarding the maximum hours a TKI should be programmed to instruct in any one period of time, in the same way we have guidance / regulations for FIs regarding daily and monthly flying time, would seem like a reasonable idea.
As you say, good TKIs are getting harder and harder to find. Flight Engineers and Navigators are, quite literally, a dying breed, and I see a significant rise in the use of newbie pilots, who can't land a flying job, being used as stop gap TKIs..... until, of course, they get that right hand seat job!
The level of real-life experience of TKIs, is diminishing rapidly. I suspect that within in a few more years, the guys with real-life experience of Navigation, AGK, M&B (mainly ex-military Navs, FEs, loadmasters, etc) will have retired and be very thin on the ground. What then? Delivery of theoretical knowledge only, unsupported by real experience. Or putting it in the vernacular, all mouth and no trousers.
Thanks for your input. Max 80 hours scheduled per month (average 4 hours classroom time per day, 5 days per week), with some proviso for extra in emergencies, in addition to what would normally be considered as other appropriate duties for a salaried TKI, sounds about right to me..... and is pretty much in line with FIs monthly maximum flying hours.
In this way I might be able to retain the (highly experienced and mature-aged) TKIs I have on staff for a few more years........
