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PORTLAND, Oregon—Maintenance providers continue to see gaps in a few key hands-on fundamentals among new hires, but the familiar technical challenges are increasingly rivaled by weaknesses in more general but no less important soft skills.
Participants on a skills-gap panel at the recent Aviation Technical Education Council (ATEC) Annual Conference agree that safety wiring, which has long vexed many less experienced airframe and powerplant (A&P) mechanics, remains a challenge.
“We’ve actually built safety wire [training] boards for the schools,” said Archie Vega, Horizon Air Director of Maintenance and Development. Horizon and parent Alaska Air Group partner with several aviation maintenance technician (AMT) training providers as part of an extensive workforce pipeline initiative.
Safety wiring, which keeps fasteners and similar hardware in place during vibrations and other mechanical stresses, is taught in Part 147 AMT training curriculum. But it comes early in what is usually a two-year program. It’s also not a pass-fail item, Vega noted.
Airlines and MRO providers address skills gaps in several ways.
Some, like Horizon, provide training tools directly to schools producing some of their newly minted A&P candidates.
Southwest Airlines appends maintenance manual instructions and task cards with multimedia, said Scott Colling, the airline’s Tech Ops Training Program director. The airline takes a prudent approach with the strategy, he said.
“You don’t want a 40-min. training video with a task card that takes five minutes,” he said. “We’re just recognizing that people do learn differently. They need other options.”
Southwest’s multimedia supplements reflect an emerging skills gap that appears to be growing.
“Failure to follow [work instructions] has been on everybody’s radar,” Colling said. “I certainly know it’s at the national levels as well.”
Vega said safety wiring remains a watch item, but work instruction comprehension is climbing higher on the list.
“It’s not all about safety wiring like it was last year,” Vega said. “What I’ve seen this year is that newer students coming out don’t have the ability to read and understand the maintenance manuals.”
Part of the challenge is that many AMT schools do not use manuals similar to those found at a Part 121 operator.
“However, you should have the basic knowledge to be able to read and understand aircraft manuals of any type and then be able to go out there and get the job done,” he said.
Bombardier has developed a six-week course that new hires take to learn “the Bombardier way,” said Jessica Istas, the manufacturer’s director, Aftermarket Environmental Health and Safety, U.S. Academia and Community Relations. The lessons include fundamentals such as safety wiring, but also soft skills that promote teamwork, self-confidence and, most importantly, personal safety.
“Those with zero to three years’ experience within Bombardier are 67% more likely to get injured due to their lack of familiarity with their surroundings, due to their lack of knowledge or experience with the job they’re doing, or due to the lack of confidence to stop and ask for help,” Istas said. “I think that’s something that maybe we can work on together to remind them that safety is everyone’s number one top priority, and you must stop. You must be comfortable and confident enough to ask for help.”
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