[Peetwo]

AMROBA exposes CASA's ineptitude, ignorance and liability on current LAME shortage?? - UDB!   

Bit of a tale here so try to keep up...  

A couple of weeks ago, KC via the AP emails:

 To all Members.

Four Basic Steps

Civil aviation maintenance is not a domestic market it is an international market where the qualifications and skills within that global market are required to be standardised to enable businesses individuals access to these markets, including employment globally.

1. Because of Australia’s massive shortage of trades persons, we need access to the global civil aviation engineering workforce to enable Australian employers to fully staff their businesses.
• Tradespersons are just not available in Australia.
2. Introduce global standard “Aircraft Maintenance Engineer” TAFE courses harmonised with the international standards promulgated by ICAO.
• The NVET system does not have an “Aircraft Maintenance Engineer” qualification meeting global standards.
3. The intent of the Chicago Convention is to have single global standards for everything, including maintenance personnel.
• This does just apply to personnel it also applies to aircraft, products and all training
4. NVET introduce Aircraft Maintenance Engineer training courses that meet these international standards.
• ICAO provides training and full guidance on qualifying to their global training standards.
Benefits: Not only does it enable employment from other countries but also enables Australian aviation tradespersons to take employment in other countries, just like pilots.

It already applies to pilots who regularly seek employment off-shore, when will it apply to aircraft maintenance engineers and licenced aircraft maintenance engineers.

Australian LAMEs pre the formation of the CAA, under previous standards. had better global recognition in other countries than they do today.

Aim:        the training and qualifications in all aviation countries meet international standards and practices promulgated by ICAO.

Benefit:          transportable qualifications and skills within the international civil aviation engineering markets.

All of these ICAO points are applicable in Australia. ICAO is showing leadership in this initiative.
ICAO’s Net Generation of Aviation Professionals.

The shortage of aviation professionals can be attributed to some of these factors:

■■ retirements of the current generation of aviation professionals;
■■ aviation professions are not attractive enough to potential candidates;
■■ competition with other industry sectors for skilled employees;
■■ training capacity insufficient to meet demand;
■■ learning methodologies not responsive to new evolving learning style; accessibility to affordable training;
■■ lack of harmonization of competencies in some aviation disciplines; and
■■ little awareness by the “next generation” of types of aviation professions available.

ICAO introduced this initiative a decade back but no action by government to adopt the training to global standards.

The above four points must  be passed to the Education Department who are the appropriate government department to adopt this project.

Time to stop spinning wheels and do it properly like our Asian neighbours are doing..
    

And in response to Andrew Anderson Chair of the GAAN:

Andrew,

I know the GAAN is operationally focused but engineering has to be globally focused.

All our products need to meet the FAR system so we can obtain international recognition.

The same applies to maintenance personnel. We still do not have a dedicated NVET training for an “Aircraft Maintenance Engineer” Qualification or training packages for CASA AME licences.

We are stuck in Warp time with a Diploma of Aeroskills that supported the maintenance system pre CAA.

Ref: https://auntypru.com/wp-content/uploads/...023574.pdf

Along the same theme, I asked KC to respond to this article from Aviation Week's MRO digest: 

Aircraft Engineer Licensing Needs To Be Streamlined, MRO Experts Say




Adrian Schofield

Australia’s MRO industry faces major challenges due to a shortage of licensed aircraft engineers, and more needs to be done to improve the engineer certification process, according to a panel of experts.

KC in reply...

“..Australia’s MRO industry faces major challenges due to a shortage of licensed aircraft engineers, and more needs to be done to improve the engineer certification process, according to a panel of experts.

Adopt fully the EASA Part 147 training courses applicable to CASR Part 66  5 courses and 4 sub-courses.

“The [MRO] industry was bleeding during COVID—many people just left the industry,” Heston MRO CEO Asta Zirlyte said during the Aviation Week MRO Australasia conference in Brisbane on May 17. She noted that many engineer licenses “exist on paper, but people are gone and [the licenses] are not active.”

Adopt EASA renewal time period so the LAME database records available LAMEs

Zirlyte said she would like to see regulators facilitate some “fast, short-term solutions.” Longer-term solutions can still be discussed, but in the meantime the industry needs help now, she said.

AMROBA have supported fast tracking of foreign LAMEs – pass an Air law exam

One thing that should be done is expediting approvals for foreign licensed aircraft engineers to start working in Australia, Zirlyte said. There could be some restrictions placed on their licenses initially if required, but at least they could become active more quickly, she said.

CASA is supposedly developing this process.

Geoff Shearer, MD of New Zealand-based Kotare Aviation, said the MRO sector has seen 2-3 years of “people leaving the industry.” In terms of growing the engineering workforce, the focus should be on “breaking down the barriers to entry and speeding up the process,” he said.\

Provision of applicable training courses is the first step.

Shearer noted there are forecasts projecting robust fleet growth in the Australasia region in the medium term. However, he “wonders how many of these [new aircraft] will be on the ground because of the lack of engineers.”

Provision of applicable training courses is the first step.

There was an average of 297 aircraft engineer licenses issued per year in the 2006-2016 period, said Sheridan Austin, owner of Aviation Quality and Management Services. The average dropped to 135 per year in 2017-2021, and there were just 117 certified in 2022, Austin said.

Because current training only supports the airlines.

Austin said one of the reasons for declining numbers of aircraft engineers was a change in the way licensing was certified in Australia in 2011.

Actually happened in 2007

There has been a dramatic decline in the number of engineering apprentices being taken on by Australian MRO operators, Austin said. This is partly an effect of the certification changes.

It is more difficult for operators to hire apprentices while there are fewer licensed engineers to supervise them, Austin said. However, “it is critical to the survival of our industry” that more operators take on apprentices.

There is no appropriate national apprentice trade training courses to support licencing.

Austin authored a report for the Regional Aviation Association of Australia in October 2022 outlining several recommendations to improve the engineer licensing and training process...”

The basics in latest Newsletter is the real reason for a decline.

  KC: "..The basics in latest Newsletter is the real reason for a decline..."

Hmm...go to the 'Spring 2022 RAAA Newsletter' for RAAA's summary of Sheridan Austin's report done on behalf of the RAAA...  

The LAME shortage

The RAAA’s report, ‘The ‘Aircraft maintenance engineer shortage – crisis and opportunities’ has been getting a lot of coverage since its release in October, so you will probably have seen mention of it. A key issue for RAAA members, especially in rural and regional areas, the LAME shortage is critical. As member, Matthew Wheatley of Sigma Aerospace based in Tamworth, says, ‘There is a shortage of licensed aircraft maintenance engineers (LAME) in Australian aviation, a shortage now at crisis point. If we do not address this immediately, the continuing airworthiness of the Australian aircraft fleet will be significantly compromised, and more aviation maintenance organisations will be forced to close their hangar doors, threatening the future viability of the Australian aviation industry and the critical transport infrastructure it provides.’

However, what makes this report different, because the LAME shortage is not news—it’s something which has been raised for many years, in numerous reports—is the fact that that it offers federal and state decision makers some concrete, pragmatic and achievable ways to do something about it. And that’s largely because the author of the report is Sheridan Austin, an AME of many years’ standing, with 25 years of aviation experience, much of it in aviation engineering regulation, quality and safety standards, in rural and regional areas...

...Read the full report on the RAAA’s website.

The report has been widely distributed. RAAA chief executive, Steve Campbell and Sheridan Austin have been promoting these issues with aviation media; the Federal Minister, the Hon. Catherine King; CASA; and training organisations. Australian Aviation’s Adam Thorn interviewed Campbell and Austin in a podcast titled ‘How to fix our engineering talent shortage’ on 20 October, which is well worth a listen..."

  
Okay so back to KC's 'basics in latest Newsletter' ..for the real solutions for addressing the LAME shortage..   :

Ref: https://auntypru.com/wp-content/uploads/...023616.pdf









Hmm...pretty consistent message there KC! - 

MTF...P2