June 16, 2022 – Özgür KARATAŞ
Aviation is a strong industrial sector due to its economic volume and written work culture. This industry, which employs tens of thousands of people globally, primarily employs “white-collar” workers. This workforce, which manages a significant global capacity in terms of economics, includes a huge economy from aircraft production to terminal operations.
When the education and training pattern of the aviation industry is evaluated, it is revealed that most of the undergraduate programs that have been representing for many years are focused on areas such as aircraft production and facility/operation management. Undergraduate departments with names like aircraft engineering, aviation engineering, aerospace engineering, and aviation management are examples of these.
On the basis of any civil aviation authority, airport operator, or airline operator; if the list of human resources is examined, navigation, flight planning, inspection, certification, and so on. It can be found that the undergraduate graduation degrees of the personnel in many sub-unit structures are extremely diverse. While this diversity is visible in developed countries, with a higher proportion of graduates from specialized departments of faculties established specifically for aviation, the situation is very different in developing countries. In fact, another issue that draws attention is that aviation industry employees, regardless of where they are located; are that it is fed by people who can use foreign languages, particularly English, and who prefer this industry because it is more global and powerful, even if there are multiple job options in their own country’s human resources pool.
Providing engineering services to the aviation industry; Advanced engineering applications are a critical issue for both authorities and operators. Nowadays, these applications range from route optimization to environmentally friendly solutions, from competitive commercial data analysis to the development of technological safety and security systems. All stakeholders face a significant human resource procurement problem in so many different areas of application. To address this issue, organizations such as ICAO, Eurocontrol, EASA, and ACI have been providing continuous vocational training to human resources in the sector for many years. Indeed, many regulatory and supervisory authorities require such training as a mandatory qualification condition in human resource accreditation.
In terms of human resources, we believe that the aviation industry will undoubtedly continue to be an interdisciplinary sector. This vibrancy and diversity are key components of the aviation industry’s ability to be progressive and innovative. However, in some departments within the Faculties of Engineering, we see benefits in implementing special programs for the aviation industry. Human resources for engineering can be strengthened by developing customized and encouraged aviation programs through traditional mechanisms such as graduation projects, minor, double major, and master’s degree programs. Aside from these, there are advantages to national or international authorities developing new and more appealing methods for industry-specific vocational learning orientation. To that end, we share as a suggestion that data/opinions of sectoral stakeholders under the headings of “education and training human resources” should be consulted on a regular basis, and national/global strategies be implemented while taking these opinions into account.