"Call for boost in number of maintenance trainees
EXCLUSIVE
MITCHELL BINGEMANN
TRAINING
RENEE NOWYTARGER
Ken Cannane, of the Aviation Maintenance Repair and Overhaul Association, says practical skills are not being taught before engineers start work
A dramatic overhaul of aircraft maintenance traineeships is urgently needed if Australia is to dodge a chronic shortage of aviation engineers, according to researchers and industry groups.
The calls come as statistics from government departments show sharp declines in the number of engineers completing training for aircraft maintenance roles over the past 10 years.
According to figures from the Department of Employment, the number of aviation apprentices and trainees has more than halved from its peak of 779 in 2013 to 370 in 2015.
A recent report from researchers at the University of NSW — titled The Future of Aircraft Maintenance in Australia — also pointed to declines in the training of maintenance staff, finding that a global workforce shortage within the next 10 years would see a 30 per cent shortage of trained aircraft maintenance workers. It said Australia would be hit harder than other nations.
“This means moving quickly to rebuild both aircraft maintenance and maintenance training industries by 2020, to permit Australia to handle a high proportion of its own needs across the civilian airline, general aviation and defence sectors,” the report said.
Ken Cannane, a director for the Aviation Maintenance Repair and Overhaul Association, said the shortage was being exacerbated by a “deskilling” of the workforce because practical skills were no longer being taught before engineers made it into employment.
“This clearly shows that a new approach is needed to provide the practical skills and theoretical knowledge for future aircraft maintenance engineers and technicians,” Mr Cannane told The Australian.
Mr Cannane said that while official figures from the Civil Aviation Safety Authority showed the number of aircraft maintenance engineers on the rise, he said that was only because the organisation had introduced a perpetual licence scheme in 2007.
“This gives the impression that the number of engineers is always growing but because the licences are perpetual we have no idea how many have left and how many are actually still working in the industry,” he said.
“Many training organisations have simply trained far too many people for the industry.
“More importantly, while these training programs have met the documented qualification standards as set out by CASA, they have not, and do not provide the skills needed by industry.”
A spokesman for the CASA disputed the figures and assertions from AMROBA, saying it was “not correct to state that the number of people completing training to become licensed aircraft maintenance engineers is falling”.
“For example in 2011 a total of 211 people completed aircraft mechanical training. In 2012 this rose to 370 and in 2013 this rose again to 410,” the spokesman said.
“It is important all maintenance personnel hold recognised national qualifications that ensure the maintenance and repair industry has a highly skilled workforce.”
The report from UNSW also raised concerns about the level of training that aspiring aircraft engineers went through before becoming fully qualified.
“Australia has allowed its training system to run down, with enrolments in certain categories at their lowest since statistics have been collected, raising concerns that qualifications are not meeting international standards,” the report said.
Mr Cannane said it was imperative that the current training schemes for aircraft maintenance engineers placed a greater emphasis on real-world skills.
“We need a complete review of the apprenticeship traineeships that underpin the licensing system,” he said.
“Our concern is that the Australian qualification framework doesn’t include the practical skills necessary for aviation work. This needs to be addressed, it needs to be fixed and we need to get practical skills back into focus so people can safely work on aircraft.”
The CASA spokesman said while competency-based training remained the basis for all national vocational training standards, it did not mean appropriate practical training and support was being ignored.
“CASA provides guidance to aircraft maintenance organisations about how they can continue to use the CASA Schedules of Experience to confirm that vocational training received in TAFE is further supported in practice in the workplace,” the spokesman said.
“CASA has proposed a new set of standards for the training of engineers who work on small aircraft.
“CASA believes the introduction of these specific licensing requirements for small aircraft predominantly used in general aviation will further allow training to be tailored to support industry needs and promote participation in aircraft maintenance occupations.”"
Meanwhile at the coal face, Qantas have let their training school wither on the vine. Once upon a time it provided world class training, but now it's been relegated to hosting external training providers. We continue to see the RTOs QAC and AA provide Kelloggs Kourses, basically a famil course masquerading as an AME Licence course, with massive gaps in system knowledge, and the blokes learn enough to be dangerous. Qantas Engineering management - and from what I hear Virgin is the same - are happy to accept these Mickey Mouse licences, and understandably so, because they're not paying for the training. All they see is that the LAME can now officially certify for maintenance. The LAMEs are happy because they only have to sit a 6 week course instead of the 10 - 12 week company courses we're used to, but they quietly acknowledge the courses and subsequently their knowledge are sub-standard. CASA are blind to the inadequacies, because they demonstrably do not understand their own regs, and are getting the wool pulled over their eyes by the RTOs.
The average age of LAMEs is quite high, with a large number within coo-ee of retirement. What few LAMEs are coming through are woefully unprepared. Crunch time is coming...