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TAFE SA debacle stings trainee Ginger beers - 

Via the Oz:

Aircraft engineers must redo subjects at TAFE SA after training bungle

• Michael Owen
  
• The Australian
  
• 12:00AM October 5, 2017
  

Aircraft maintenance engineers who since May have had parts of their licences suspended after an air safety regulator audit exposed a serious TAFE SA training bungle that risked the lives of air travellers have been told they must redo key course modules.
Letters to those affected said the Civil Aviation Safety Autho­rity, in co-operation with TAFE SA, had completed a review of training assessment records and supporting documentation.

In many cases, “training assessment standards ... have not been completed”, letters say, and some conditions on licences will remain suspended “until the training and/or assessment deficiencies have been rectified”.

“Your failure to meet the required standards for the issue of that licence raises potentially significant aviation safety concerns,” a letter from the head of CASA’s licensing team, Craig Johnson, says.

“On the basis of the records provided by TAFE SA, CASA is unable to be satisfied that you have received adequate levels of training and undergone appropriate assessments to demonstrate that you are competent to safely exercise all the privileges conferred (by the licence).

“CASA is not attributing any fault or blame on your part. TAFE SA ... did not ensure that the ­applicable training assessment standards were satisfied in ­accordance with the relevant syllabus and the applicable legislative requirements.”

Among affected modules of the course taught at TAFE SA’s Parafield Airport campus are electronic instrument systems; electrical fundamentals; maintenance practices; and aeroplane and helicopter aerodynamics, structures and systems.

TAFE SA has offered, free of charge, retraining with an “allocated lecturer” or with another CASA-accredited training provider. As revealed by The Weekend Australian on September 2, about 90 aircraft maintenance engineers, whose jobs are to ensure planes and helicopters are safe to fly, were caught up in the scandal.

Those affected include a small number of Qantas engineers and others employed by CHC Helicopter, the largest commercial helicopter operator in Australia.

A CASA spokesman yesterday said issues with training assessments and outcomes varied on a case-by-case basis. “Different ­requirements for different ­students,” the spokesman said.

TAFE SA executive director of education Brian Rungie yesterday said its status as a maintenance training organisation was being returned on a staged basis, and it could now again conduct CASA exams and make recommendations on the issuing of ­licences.

“We expect CASA to have ­assessed all information and ­respond in the near future regarding the return of the full MTO ­status,” Mr Rungie said.

South Australian Deputy Opposition Leader Vickie Chapman said the scandal was unacceptable. “This is not about greasing a bicycle chain. This is about keeping planes in the sky,” she said.

It was revealed last week that TAFE SA had failed an Australian Skills Quality Authority accreditation in all 16 courses randomly selected for an audit, affecting 2500 students.

 
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