Engaging the Next Generation of Aviation Professionals

Suzanne K. Kearns, Timothy J. Mavin, Steven Hodge, Suzanne K. Kearns, Timothy J. Mavin, Steven Hodge

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9781000027327
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Technology & Engineering
• Subtopic: Aviation
• Index: Technology & Engineering

Engaging the Next Generation of Aviation Professionals is an edited volume that brings together a diverse set of academic and professional perspectives within the three themes of attracting, educating, and retaining the next generation of aviation professionals (NGAP). This compilation is the first academic work specifically targeting this critical issue.

The book presents a rich variety of perspectives, academic philosophies, and real-world examples. Submissions include brief case studies, longer scholarly works from respected academics, and professional reflections from individuals who have made important contributions to their field. The book includes academic chapters that explore the topic from a more theoretical standpoint yet are accessible and understandable to a professional audience. These are complemented by both broad and specific practice examples that describe initiatives and applications occurring in the industry around the three themes. All submissions include descriptive insights, experiences, and first-hand accounts of accomplishments, intended to support the work of other professionals managing NGAP issues.

This work will be valuable to anyone involved in attracting, educating, or retaining NGAP, including academics, operators, national and international regulators, and outreach coordinators, among many others.

1 Attracting the next generation of aviation professionals

Section introduction

Suzanne K. Kearns

If you ask an aviation professional what it was that sparked their interest in the field, most can describe the moment that influenced them to pursue their career. They may share a story of being invited into a cockpit on an airline flight (before the security interventions of 9/11 prohibited this practice), seeing a Hollywood movie that glorified aviation careers, or of visiting a museum with interactive exhibits on flight.

The sector hasn’t historically had to invest significant effort into attracting youth – as the inherent appeal of flight was enough to capture the interest of sufficient young people to support the need for professionals. However, attracting youth to aviation (which had long been taken for granted) is now a key pillar of NGAP strategy. Deliberate, strategic, and innovative efforts are now underway around the world to encourage youth to pursue careers in aviation.

The submissions within Section One highlight several key initiatives, considerations, strategies, and success stories related to attracting the next generation of aviation professional:

1.1 Case study – Local governments as enablers of the aviation workforce: a case in Portugal by Miguel C. Moreira

A case study about how local governments can help youth discover their passion for aviation, by exploring the case of Ponte de Sor, a small town that transformed its aerodrome to become the fastest growing aerospace cluster in Portugal.

1.2 Case study – Nurturing the future aviation professional in Africa by Shekoyecenu Gladys Ngbako

A roadmap to explore the skills gap of NGAP within Africa, examining the support provided by states, organizations, and industries. Key issues include the lack of female participation and financial obstacles in the profession. The Aviators Africa Academy (AAA) and iFly Academy are discussed.

1.3 Case Study – A sustainability perspective on the pilot shortage in Canada by Adem Okal, Angeline Ram, and Suzanne K. Kearns

A case study exploring how unsustainable recruitment practices are disrupting pilot career progression within Canada, particularly causing shortages of flight instructors and pilots to serve the remote northern regions.

1.4 Case study – Introducing ALICANTO, the International Association of Aviation and Aerospace Education by Angela C. Albritton, Pascal Revel, and Robert Reid

The authors introduce ALICANTO, the International Association of Aviation and Aerospace Education, which was developed to act as a coordinated voice of academia to international aerospace stakeholders.

1.5 Chapter – Aviation outreach: reaching the next generation of aviation professionals by Rebecca K. Lutte and Chenyu Huang

This chapter introduces a model of aviation outreach and explores existing outreach programs within the United States and internationally. A checklist is presented outlining essential elements of an outreach program.

1.6 Chapter – STEM and sustainability: creating aviation professional change agents by Patti J. Clark, Laura Zizka, and Doreen M. McGunagle

Sustainability is a critical element of aviation training. This chapter discusses sustainability and proposes a simple strategy for its integration into aviation science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) programs to create authentic engagement in students.

1.7 Professional reflection – The case of Cambodia: challenges in training the next generation of aviation professionals by Jennifer A. Meszaros

This work explores the history of aviation within Cambodia, challenges being faced, and calls for an aviation workforce skills study to understand the training needs of Cambodia’s air transport system.

1.8 Professional reflection – A Great Britain perspective on aviation skills by Simon Witts

A personal reflection of a professional’s work building the Aviation Skills Partnership in the United Kingdom, including the drafting of an Aviation Skills Manifesto – a Charter for Aviation Skills and its supporting Aviation Skills Plan.

1.1 Case study – Local governments as enablers of the aviation workforce

A case in Portugal

Miguel C. Moreira

Introduction

In today’s global economy, the aviation industry faces mounting challenges. Companies worldwide understand that talent is now a primary and critical source of competitive advantage. However, the aviation industry is gripped by an overwhelming shortage of skilled professionals, of which the global lack of airline pilots and aircraft maintenance technicians is just the most visible aspect. The answer to this problem must come from tightened partnerships between the industry and training and educational institutions, as education and career experience have been recognized as two of the highest-impact accelerators to global growth (Mercer, 2013).

While companies are making greater investments in talent, it is recognized that educational institutions are failing to generate the talent required across the industry. The new generation of aviation professionals must have the skills and knowledge necessary for the role (Lappas & Kourousis, 2016), as well as the broader creative and critical-thinking skills that can elevate organizational performance to its highest level. Despite high unemployment in many regions of the world, companies today face a shortfall of qualified talent to fill critical roles such as airline pilots, maintenance technicians, engineers, to name a few.

As the global economy faces this new paradigm, we compete regionally and globally for talent, investment, and entrepreneurs in technology-intensive industries such as the aviation industry. Yet we also compete against national and regional governments that are executing comprehensive strategies that seek to create innovation clusters in many of the same important, emerging industries. According to Paneo and Sasanelli (2016), there is clear evidence that universities and research institutions provide significant impetus to aerospace clusters, thanks to their ability to provide both support to R&D activities and highly skilled human capital, essential in high value-added industries and particularly in aerospace. We need to support these strategies with investment in universities, research collaborations, and skilled workforce training, in a modern science-park type of environment. With the acceleration of globalization, the decision on the location of clusters experienced a shift in its focus, moving from a mechanism for facilitating access to resources and workforce to a strategy for generating knowledge and developing skills to support global and sustainable competitive advantage (Silva, 2012).

Ponte de Sor

Ponte de Sor is a small town located 120 km north-east of Lisbon, Portugal with 17,000 inhabitants. Through the realization of substantial direct investments in the last decade, Ponte de Sor has made a systematic and consistent effort in the Aeronautics and Civil Aviation sector. In particular, the Ponte de Sor Municipal Aerodrome is being consolidated as an anchor infrastructure of the Aeronautical Cluster in Portugal, with a very positive effect on development for the region’s economy. The project in question is the result of a territorially based strategy aimed at promoting the competitiveness, sustainable development, employment, and social cohesion and land use planning of the Ponte de Sor County.

The series of investments started in 2005 (expansion of the old small runway) in order to accommodate the main base of the Portuguese forest firefighting fleet and operations, in the wake of a state decision to base those activities in Ponte de Sor. The second phase of investment was induced by the need to monetize the first investment made, as the firefighting activities are seasonal and do not generate any real income to the municipality. Together with the opportunities that arose at the time the country was emerging from the debt crisis (2013), several airline pilot schools based in Lisbon were seeking to expand operations into a less occupied airspace, as the training efficiency near Lisbon International Airport is significantly limited.

As a result of the foresight of the municipality, its aerodrome was equipped with three state-of-the-art hangars, and a new 1,800 m runway, duly certified to be able to receive medium-haul commercial airplanes such as the Airbus A320 and Boeing B737. Such investments served the purpose to attract new companies and businesses to the region, as a means to tackle one of the higher (> 20 percent) unemployment rates in the country during the debt crisis years. Since 2013, companies such as L3 Airline Academy, TEKEVER (one of the largest producers of drones for maritime surveillance of the European Union), and the Rexiaa Group (producer of composite components and supplier of Airbus Helicopters and Dassault Aviation) were able to house their businesses in Ponte de Sor.

Following these initial investments, the municipality has been working hard since 2016 on an internationalization mission program to promote the local cluster and available facilities as a means of attracting both new national and international investors, but also young people to integrate the present and future workforce that is being developed there. This mission has included an EUR 11 million investment that will allow new hangars to be built, providing the opportunity for heavy aircraft maintenance activities and training of new young professionals.

However, the attraction of new talent to the industry in such a small region is a daunting challenge. The local government has sought to establish several partnerships with high schools and universities, so that aviation careers can be promoted among the young students of the region from an early age. As reported by Moreira (2015), the Ponte de Sor high school and the G Air flight academy created the first vocational training program in the country. This allowed a first group of 14 students, with no previous contact with aviation, to enter a four-month internship with G Air Maintenance (an EASA approved Part 145 organization). This first project was so successful, that it became imperative to allow these students to enter higher education degrees in aviation. However, the Ponte de Sor district, a large region covering 840 km², does not have a higher education institution (the nearest being located about 90 km away). To overcome this obstacle, we partnered with the Polytechnic Institute of Setúbal (located near Lisbon) in order to design a two-year degree that could be offered in Ponte de Sor. This has allowed a first generation of students to enrol in a higher education degree in aviation without having to leave the territory. This pilot project led to the development of additional partnerships with an increasing number of Portuguese leading universities, which now contribute to further the offer of training programs in Ponte de Sor, namely the degree in Aircraft Maintenance that is being developed under the EASA syllabus.

Portugal Air Summit

In recent years, the aviation industry has recognized that accelerating the rate of employment of the new generation of professionals can only be effective if aviation careers are widely promoted and understood by the younger generation. This means that there is a clear need to attract them to aviation and aerospace careers. This can only be achieved with a significant investment in the public awareness of the aeronautical and aerospace sciences. With this purpose in mind, in 2017 the Ponte de Sor local government launched the Portugal Air Summit initiative which is the largest aviation event in the Iberian Peninsula. The summit includes a four-day conference program which creates a unique occasion for the sector to discuss its challenges and opportunities, and for the young public to meet and learn from professionals. The summit has had a very significant impact on both the region and the country: as an example, the 2018 event generated a total of EUR 723,000 of net advertising value equivalence, and was exposed to 2.4 million individuals (which implies that on average each Portuguese citizen was impacted seven times by the event on online media).

For the 2019 edition, the Air Summit also welcomed the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the European Space Agency (NASA and ESA) for their yearly “Partnership for Global Sustainability” event to attract the younger students for the new space era, in which the commercial exploration of space is becoming possible across the globe. It is of the utmost importance that the Ponte de Sor project helps in linking the higher education institutions to the local, national, and international business and scientific communities, as a way of enhancing the innovation capacity of our companies. This means that the aeronautical activities complex of the Ponte de Sor aerodrome, understood here as a regional cluster, should take innovation as a strategic driver. For this reason and bearing in mind the need to reinvent how students and employers communicate, a roadshow was conducted in 16 universities in Portugal to disseminate the new Huby smartphone application that is being created with local government funding. The aim is to link young students with the Portuguese leading aviation and aerospace companies (phase 1), and their counterparts in Brazil and Africa (phase 2), in order to foster employability throughout the Portuguese speaking countries. The aim is to establish the first competency and job offer dashboard, as a Portuguese contributing effort to the ICAO NGAP Index, a project that seeks to provide regional and state forecasts on the needs of the global aviation work force.

Conclusions

Ponte de Sor has ensured a continuous effort to create infrastructural conditions to support investment, gradually oriented toward hosting businesses, higher education activities and specialized R&D services. In the med...