[Peetwo]

QF flying school X 2 confirmed - 

Via Oz Flying: 

Qantas commits to Second Academy Location
29 August 2018

Qantas announced last week that it is looking for two locations around Australia to establish flying training academies instead of only one as originally stated.

According to the airline, the second location has become necessary because of the forecast demand for pilots and the interest the airline has received for flight training.

Plans for the Qantas Group Pilot Academy were announced in February this year and it’s expected the first site will be operational during 2019. Nine regional cities across Australia – Alice Springs, Bendigo, Busselton, Dubbo, Launceston, Mackay, Tamworth, Toowoomba and Wagga Wagga – have been shortlisted as potential sites, with an announcement expected in the next few weeks.

Qantas Group CEO Alan Joyce said that initial scoping had shown that two locations would be needed to reach the academy’s potential.

“We’re aiming to train up to 100 pilots in year one but we expect this to grow to as many as 500 a year and that can only be achieved if we have more than one location,” he said.
“Adding up to 250 students plus instructors and support staff to any of these places needs the right infrastructure at airports, but also in the towns themselves.

“The academy represents a commercial opportunity for Qantas, but it’s also important for the future of Australian aviation. We expect that pilots completing their training with the academy could fly for other airlines, the defence force or services like the Royal Flying Doctors.”

Boeing’s latest estimates show that 790,000 more pilots will be required globally over the next 20 years, around one third of them in Asia Pacific, figures which have led to Qantas entering the flight training market.

According to Qantas, almost 17,000 people have so far registered their interest in the Qantas Group Pilot Academy, 16% of which are femaie, a mark much higher than the current industry participation of 3% female.

Read more at http://www.australianflying.com.au/lates...EIfSWUI.99

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Race for Qantas pilot academy
ROBYN IRONSIDE
Regional towns are battling it out to secure the lucrative addition of one of two new Qantas pilot academies.

Good news followed by bad news...
SA TAFE LAME cock-up update:

Via the Oz:

Training bungle hits taxpayers
MICHAEL OWEN
Almost 90 aircraft maintenance ­engineers have been paid more than $2 million after their licences were revoked.

Almost 90 Australian and international aircraft maintenance ­engineers have been paid more than $2 million in compensation and retraining fees after their ­licences were revoked in the wake of a training bungle at TAFE SA.

A routine Civil Aviation Safety Authority audit early last year, which ultimately led to a widespread TAFE SA training scandal affecting about 800 students across 16 “substandard” courses, found the aircraft maintenance training course was non-­compliant.

The training bungle was ­exposed during an investi­gation by The Weekend Australian.

Former Labor skills minister Susan Close, who is now state Deputy Opposition Leader, was informed of the investigation five months earlier, but had kept it from the public.

The incident saw Qantas no longer use TAFE SA for training.

South Australian Treasurer Rob Lucas, who will deliver the new Liberal government’s first budget next week, said the TAFE SA settlement would cover the cost of students’ lost wages, re-training fees, and accommodation and airfares for interstate and overseas students.

The cost to taxpayers includes sending TAFE SA staff on “travelling roadshows” across Australia to conduct their retraining.

“This whole sorry saga is just another example of the sheer incompetence of the former Labor government and the mess they’ve left us to clean up,’’ Mr Lucas said yesterday.

“Aircraft maintenance training students — who had paid around $5000 to $10,000 for a module and up to $52,000 for a full ­diploma — were told their licences were invalid and forced to suspend all work directly related to them.”

There were only three other centres in the country offering the training: TAFE NSW, Aviation Australia and Federation Training in Gippsland, Victoria.

Mr Lucas said four students from Dili, East Timor, had paid $98,000 to take the course at the Parafield Airport campus of TAFE SA and sit their exams.

“On the advice of the Crown Solicitor’s Office, the government is now covering their lost wages and paying for them to be retrained but, because many of them live interstate, there is an added $1m cost to fly TAFE SA staff on travelling roadshows to Darwin, Cairns, Brisbane and Perth to conduct the retraining,” Mr Lucas said.

He said the total cost to compensate 87 students was $2,037,888. There also was significant international brand damage to TAFE SA, he said.

The taxpayer-funded payout is among more than $12m in claims the Marshall government is ­settling with about 100 victims of previous issues that occurred on the watch of the former Labor government, including the Oakden aged-care scandal, chemotherapy under-dosing, missed breast cancer detection and Pathology SA’s incorrect prostate test results.

Mr Lucas said there would be a big hit to the state’s budget from TAFE SA’s problems, including a “very significant” operating cost blowout for vocational training courses.

“It is the government’s view that TAFE SA (still) has an important role to play, if properly managed,” Mr Lucas said.

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Course crash costs millions
MICHAEL OWEN

The SA government has paid out 87 TAFE aircraft maintenance students who had their licences revoked after a damning audit.
The South Australian government has paid more than $2 million in compensation and retraining fees to 87 TAFE SA aircraft maintenance training course students who had their licences revoked following a damning Civil Aviation Safety Authority audit.

The audit early last year, which led to the exposure of a widespread TAFE SA training scandal affecting about 800 students across 16 “substandard” courses, found the aircraft maintenance training course was non-compliant for a number of reasons.

It was only after an investigation by The Weekend Australian that the serious training bungle was exposed in September last year.

Former Labor skills minister Susan Close, who is now the opposition’s deputy leader, was informed of the investigation five months earlier, but kept it from the public.

The incident saw Qantas no longer use TAFE SA for training.

South Australian Treasurer Rob Lucas, who will deliver the new government’s first budget next week, said the TAFE SA settlement would cover the cost of students’ lost wages, retraining fees, accommodation and airfares for interstate and overseas students — as well as the cost of sending TAFE SA staff on “travelling roadshows” across Australia to conduct the retraining.

“This whole sorry saga is just another example of the sheer incompetence of the former Labor government and the mess they’ve left us to clean up,’’ Mr Lucas said today.

“Aircraft maintenance training students — who had paid around $5000 to $10,000 for a module and up to $52,000 for a full Diploma — were told their licences were invalid and forced to suspend all work directly related to them.”

There were only three other centres in the country offering the training: TAFE NSW, Aviation Australia and Federation Training in Gippsland, Victoria.

Mr Lucas said four students from Dili, East Timor had paid $98,000 to take the course at the Parafield Airport campus of TAFE SA and sit their exams.

“On the advice of the Crown Solicitor’s Office, the government is now covering their lost wages and paying for them to be retrained but, because many of them live interstate, there is an added $1m cost to fly TAFE SA staff on travelling roadshows to Darwin, Cairns, Brisbane and Perth to conduct the retraining,” Mr Lucas said.

The taxpayer-funded payout is among more than $12m in claims the Marshall government is settling with around 100 victims of previous issues on the watch of the former Labor government, including the Oakden scandal, chemotherapy under-dosing, missed breast cancer detection and Pathology SA’s incorrect prostate test results.

MTF...P2