These must be structured and capitalised to provide the most up-to-date equipment, particularly modern training aircraft for pilots and modern materials and technologies for engineers.
They must be able to take their trainees beyond initial qualification, to international certification standards, perhaps through some form of cadetship program, allow pilots to achieve an appropriate level of flying hours on modern equipment and engineers with experience on modern engines and airframes.
This could include supernumerary placements with air ambulance, rescue organisations and the like.
Cadetship programs are difficult for small training organisations to achieve.
Efforts to set up such institutions are being made.
- There is a current effort in Australia to set up on this model.
- The expertise exists, but capital raising for aviation training is difficult:
- aviation is not well understood in the financial community and is seen to be risky, which makes raising funds difficult.
That said, the large aviation training establishments which do exist are highly profitable.
Which makes this a very real commercial opportunity for capital.
- The demand is demonstrated.
- Students and their backers will pay reasonable fees.
But not on a sufficient scale to make a significant difference.
The alternative is for governments to assist with funding for targeted and professional aviation colleges.
Sometimes this will need to be outside their borders
◦ - For good flying conditions
◦ - For access to extensive training airspace.
Finally:
A huge and widespread shortage of aviation professionals is building and will become chronic over the next twenty years.
Existing training infrastructure is completely inadequate to fill the gap.
This inadequacy lies not just with number of training places, but the way training is carried out.
