[Peetwo]

TAFE South Oz - 'Hazard a guess'; or embuggerance -  

Not my area but I note this breaking news (Weekend Oz and Adelaide Advertiser) story today:

Training flaws spark air-safety scandal

TAFE SA executive director of education Brian Rungie.

• Michael Owen
  
• The Australian
  
• 12:00AM September 2, 2017
  

Almost 100 aircraft maintenance engineers from across the country have had key parts of their ­licences suspended since May after an air safety regulator audit exposed a serious training bungle that risked endangering the lives of air travellers.

An investigation by The Weekend Australian has revealed about 90 engineers, whose jobs are to ensure planes and helicopters are safe to fly, have been caught up in the scandal at the Parafield Airport campus of TAFE SA.

A Qantas spokeswoman said last night the airline would not recognise or approve the training qualifications of a “small number” of its engineers at TAFE SA while the Civil Aviation Safety Auth­ority continued its investigation.

“This training was part of the engineers’ continuous development, and over and above the standard base level training ­required by Qantas engineers,” she said.

She added Qantas no longer used TAFE SA for training.

The issue came to light after a routine audit by the Civil Aviation Safety Authority five months ago. An investigation is ongoing, with some training ­activities and licence conditions suspended “until further notice”.

South Australian Skills Minister Susan Close was informed of the investigation in late April. ­Although the minister “sought immediate and comprehensive advice on the matter and how it was to be resolved”, the public was not told.

TAFE SA course guidelines warn that “being a licensed aircraft maintenance engineer carries with it a lot of responsibility ... after all, you could kill people”.

One engineer, who is unable to carry out aspects of his job while privileges of his licence remain suspended, said the failure to teach to acceptable standards potentially had endangered lives. “This mess has affected lots of people and Australia is lucky it has not ended in a major aircraft disaster,” said the man, who asked not to be named.

A CASA spokesman said yesterday: “Aviation safety has been protected through the checks and balances built into the aircraft maintenance system. All maintenance licence holders ­exercise their licence privileges under the control of CASA-­approved aircraft maintenance organisations.”

TAFE SA operates a “maintenance training organisation” under approvals issued by CASA. There are three other centres in the country offering the training: TAFE NSW, Aviation Australia and Federation Training in Gippsland, Victoria. A CASA spokesman said the other centres were not affected.

More than 80 per cent of aircraft maintenance engineers in Australia have certificate or ­diploma level qualifications, while 3 per cent have bachelor degrees from universities.
Depending on specialisation, aircraft maintenance engineers inspect, maintain and repair the airframe and engine systems, the electrical and instrument systems, or the body of an aircraft.

In May, TAFE SA chief executive Robin Murt wrote to students advising that a recent CASA audit indicated that “certain training and assessment standards may not have been properly assured by TAFE SA in accordance with the applicable regulatory requirements”. TAFE SA said yesterday the ongoing investigation, which involved a “student-by-student review of all material”, was expected to be completed within weeks.

Some affected engineers, who declined to be named for fear of industry repercussions, said they were losing up to $1000 a week in wages; others said they were in danger of missing out on promotions or job openings.

Some students told The Weekend Australian that most of those doing the course at Parafield Airport had not completed the practical component. When it was offered, it was fast-tracked, with some material already ­assembled to enable students to pass quickly.

One student said some were advised to sign enrolment and attendance logs to ­obtain practical qualifications that they would not be undertaking, in order to provide evidence of compliance. They said it ­appeared the course was designed to allow as many students as possible to pass exams with little emphasis on learning the ­theory or practical components.

TAFE SA executive director of education Brian Rungie said the issues identified by CASA, mainly around administration, were “critical in this environment”. “This is quite embarrassing,” he said. “The training itself was where it needed to be, but we couldn’t demonstrate it.”

He said retraining and compensation would be considered on a “one-on-one basis”.
A Virgin Australia spokeswoman said the airline had no relationship with TAFE SA.

 
&..

TAFE SA aircraft maintenance students hit after CASA finds course to be inadequate
The Advertiser 9h ago

MTF...P2