What Is The Demand For Training?
Thread Starter
Join Date: Mar 2003
Location: Oztrailea
Posts: 129
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
What Is The Demand For Training?
In the current issue of the crash comics there is an article about Australian Universities that are reveiwing their aviation realted studies: (full article p:9 Flight Safety March-April 2003)
So this got me thinking about the realities of this at the various flying schools around the country.
Has there been a noticeable drop in new student pilots commencing flying training this year?
What has the trend been over the past few years? Are there less and less people forking out the hard earned to follow the dream?
Do these steps by the uni's signal an end of the dream for all pilots to have a degree - realising perhaps that actual flying skills and experience will always (at the start of a career at least) be the yardstick by which employers make their decision?
Or is this just a rationalising of the Higher Ed aspect of aviation education now that the 'honeymoon period' where they all discovered it has ended and the less successfull courses are falling by the wayside through natural attrition?
Be good to hear the thoughts of CFI's/Instrucotrs out there "on the frontline".
Also be interested to hear the merits/faults of both the Higher Ed and "licence & ratings only" paths.
Only six aviation-focused undergraduate courses are available in Australia, following decisions by two major universities to suspend entry into their Bachelor of Science (Aviation) programs for 2003.
At RMIT Uni in Melbourne, the decision was based on a lack of student enrolments, with the uni setting a minimum of 25 to make a course viable. The head of teaching in Aerospace and Engineering, Dr Plotnikova, said at times there were only 6 people in a classs.
For Newcastle Uni the decision is not due to a lack of student interest. The university began an external review of its aviation courses last year and expects to complete it by June 2003.
At RMIT Uni in Melbourne, the decision was based on a lack of student enrolments, with the uni setting a minimum of 25 to make a course viable. The head of teaching in Aerospace and Engineering, Dr Plotnikova, said at times there were only 6 people in a classs.
For Newcastle Uni the decision is not due to a lack of student interest. The university began an external review of its aviation courses last year and expects to complete it by June 2003.
Has there been a noticeable drop in new student pilots commencing flying training this year?
What has the trend been over the past few years? Are there less and less people forking out the hard earned to follow the dream?
Do these steps by the uni's signal an end of the dream for all pilots to have a degree - realising perhaps that actual flying skills and experience will always (at the start of a career at least) be the yardstick by which employers make their decision?
Or is this just a rationalising of the Higher Ed aspect of aviation education now that the 'honeymoon period' where they all discovered it has ended and the less successfull courses are falling by the wayside through natural attrition?
Be good to hear the thoughts of CFI's/Instrucotrs out there "on the frontline".
Also be interested to hear the merits/faults of both the Higher Ed and "licence & ratings only" paths.
