Recruitment Drive

aircraft maintenance license

Most of the aviation school survive on the fees from the students.Various methods were used to get students to sign in for the course.The school I am work is offering courses leading to 'Licensed aircraft engineer' in Cat B1.1 and B1.3.  The following marketing drives were used...

a. newspaper advertisement - This can be the most effective method of getting the new students. The timing is critical, and our experience shows that the best result is obtained when the ads was made 2 weeks after the release of the result.

b. Trade fare - we had some not-so-encouraging experience. In one case, the management sent 4 persons for the fare, and the result is zero. It is good to be an awareness drive to introduce the company to the public.

c. Web, blogs and facebook - This is certainly the way of the younger generation. They tend to rely on the web and "google" for the information.

Last Saturday we had a marathon of interview, for the new intakes of students.We want to make sure that we select the correct students. The effect of getting a wrong group can be negative for the school. From experience, we can forecast the students ability to complete the course. We dont want to get students that will bring down the name of the school, as the selection is often based on trust. The trust is built with good students performance.

Annual Staff Training

A 147 approved aviation schools conducting programs according to part 66 has to have an annual staff training plan for its staff. The requirements as per EASA is, all listed staff, such as the instructors, knowledge examiners and assessors need to comply to the minimum of 35 hrs/ 24 every months.

The schools are required to prepare an annual training plan for its own staff giving the list of courses
- annual training plan
- training records for all relevant staff.

In order to meet this requirement, my school is making plan to start the training program. I know that it is already April, rather a bit late to build an annual training plan for 2012, but I just join the school in April, just 2 weeks ago and the school does not have the plan.

I am calling a meeting tomorrow to start the ball rolling. I have 3 objectives, information spreading, get feedback and decision.

Some of the slide contents are given below...

1- background• 147 organization to establish and control the competence of the trainers.• Training Schedule and Records to be kept. (caa)

2. Training delivery
–DCAM is silent on the method.
– CAA … may include lectures and seminars.

3. Process 1 - Concept approval
•This process includes approval and support.
•Training may include multiple approach of lectures, talks, e-learning and presentations.
•It will be a mixed delivery of 70% internal and 30% external course/trainings.
•Those who has attended external training to..
–Share his learning, provide the course report and surrender the materials to APR.
•All instructors/examiners/assessors have to contribute minimum of 1 day per year.


Process 2 – Identify Topics and Contents
•Training manager will identify the topics and contents of the course at the beginning of the year.
•The contents to be reviewed quarterly.
•The issues that can be used as inputs:
–Organization’s direction and objectives
– authorities requirements.

Process 3 – Identification of Resources
•The resources for each of the topics will be identifies by the management.
• If it is external, the budget approval will be requested.
• If the course is to be conducted by internal instructors, the syllabus to be designed, the handout, the presentation and assessment to be prepared by the instructor.
METHOD OF TRAINING TO BE DECIDED BY THE TRAINERS

Process 4 - Scheduling
•The scheduling will be done taking consideration with the other courses.
•For the purpose of the audit, the annual training plan to be kept.

Process 5- Reporting and records
•DCAM requires..
–Annual training Plan/ Schedule for the organization
– Individual instructors training record.
• Report will include
–Deviant from DCAM requirements and corrective actions.
– Instructors contribution
– Costing

The Managing the Process is yet to be determined. I am targeting that the annual staff training plan will be unofficially accepted by the stake holders.

updating training

An Aviation School approved under part 147 has to provide staff skill's up dating training for the academic staff. As per EASA's requirements, the following group of staff have to be receiving a continuous training to keep their skills and knowledge current:

- Instructors

- Examiners

- Assessors

The requirements are as follows...

a. In the Malaysian DCAM – AN1201 - 5.2 para (i) Instructors, knowledge examiners and Assessors shall undergo updating training every 24 months in the subjects of :-

i. Current technology

ii. Practical skills

iii. Human factors

iv. Latest training technique

b. The British CAA gives the requirements that the training shall be 35 hours for every 24 months. The methods can be..

i. By lectures, symposiums etc

ii. Schedule to be made available

iii. Record of training to be kept

c. Beside the requirements as stated by the authorities, we are also suggesting the following topics.

i. The knowledge on air-leg

ii. Aircraft knowledge

iii. Industry knowledge

3. Concept of the implementation.

a. The training will be done using multiple approaches of lectures, talks and seminar.

b. It will be a mixed delivery, suggested 70% cross-training and 30% external. External training is necessary to inject new body of knowledge of the organisation.

c. All instructors to provide 6 hour ( 1 day) course for per year. The topics will discussed and selected. Examiners and assessors have to provide briefings in the area of concern.

d. All staff who attended external courses has to conduct briefing on the courses within a month of his return. The notes and materials have to be surrendered to the library.

e. The examiners to be the lead in the knowledge of assessment knowledge.

f. The assessors to lead in practical assessment.

Complying to the requirements of the authority such as EASA in the area of updating training is necessary in order to ensure continuing approval.

Role of Training Manager

If you are running an EASA 147 school, almost certainly you will require a training manager. In fact the post of training manager can be one of the positions that need to be approved by the Department of Civil Aviation like FAA or CAA.

The roles can be as follows: (some are not written here)

1. To manage training resources.

In order to conduct an approved courses, there are a number of resources required..

a. Trainers. - Trainers or instructors are required to conduct the course. The authority such as the DCA or CAA is concerned about the quality of the instructor and listed the requirement in the relevant documents.

There are areas where the school has to be concerned... the qualifying of the trainers/instructors and the continuous training. The qualifying process involved the course if instructional technique and the practical training.

b. Notes and training materials.

For 147 approve training school under EASA, the syllabus for training is stipulated under the part 66 document. Based on the syllabus, the course notes and presentation material are written

The other training materials required are the presentation material which are likely to be powerpoint.

c. Assessment materials

The approved 147 school may play the role of examination authority, like what CAA was before. To be awarded the approval to become an approved examination center, there are a number of criteria that must be satisfied which include ... sufficient questions banks, qualified examiners and have the correct facilities.

There are much more roles that the training manager has to play. He had to manage the staff, manage the training quality and the training processes.

2. Manage Training Process.

The process include:

- making schedule for the course, the workshop visits and the on-job-training with operating aircraft. This is a tedious task as the four years of the training has to translated into the daily activities of classroom or practical work.

- running of the class

- Knowledge assessment consists of examination and skills assessments.

The training manager has the role to ensure that the students will get the license as planned, all the other activities are supporting this objective.

Establishing a Web Presence

Internet is becoming the norm to search for information. If I want to know where to study to become aircraft engineer, I will use Google to look for information.

Let assume some of the common terms used by searchers...e.g

a. 147 school - there are 2400 people searching for it every month.

b. EASA part 66 - there are 5000 global search

c. aircraft engineer - there are 110,000 people searching for it and 4000 are Malaysian.

Let us see, who will they see on Google search..

a. 147 school- On first page, there was none of the 5 established school. What we had were some of the local forum.

b. EASA part 66 - There were two schools appear, MIAT and MATA

c. Aircraft engineer - Nilai College appears on the google second page.

Importance of web presence

There are a couple of reasons to have the web presence. First, depending on the type of business you are, it is to get the sale, or the customers. There are special techniques used to make it easier to create sale. It is basically requires us to guide and enable the customer create the purchase. You be surprise on the absence of the information to make the decision. Just put yourself in the shoe of the student who are interested to pursue the course, and check for the issues.

The other reasons for web presence is to create the credibility. Without looking at the physical establishment, the web page is the nearest to real life. This may require some investment.

Common Mistakes

It is probably the common mistake of the company to publish the web page with the mind set of satisfying the company or the management. It is not difficult to see why, the web design was contracted out and the web master need to satisfy the company to get the payment.

The web pages is best written with the customers in mind, if we are giving reasons why the students should choose us, the it has to be viewed from the students perspective.