Historic Agreement will Impact the Australian Aviation Industry
22 March 2007
For the first time in Australia, high quality aircraft apprentice and licensing training will be aligned for delivery across state boundaries, potentially reaching some 65 per cent of apprentices in the aircraft maintenance engineering trade streams.
In a landmark event, leading Australian aircraft maintenance training organisations, Aviation Australia (Brisbane) and Kangan Batman TAFE (Melbourne) have teamed to provide high standard training courseware in their programs for people who are training to become aircraft maintenance engineers.
This training support consists of state-of-the-art presentations, a suite of instructional support materials and an examination data base.
The latest training philosophies are also embedded in the learning systems to cater for the current generation and future workforce.
The outcomes are also aligned to new national and international licensing standards, including the requirements of the new CAO 100.66.
The Queensland Minister for Education, Training and the Arts, Rod Welford said 'At last we have industry, government and the training organisations all moving in the same direction towards national standards for aircraft maintenance engineering training.'
In another first for the industry, Aviation Australia and Kangan Batman TAFE will also use the same courseware that has been developed by Aviation Australia to meet European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) basic maintenance training requirements.
The CEO of Kangan Batman TAFE, Ray Griffiths, said 'The contract is a landmark event in the Australian aviation industry as it will also boost aviation training standards, export business potential and ultimately aviation safety, across the nation.'
'The contract also provides a resounding endorsement to the Queensland Government's decision to invest in Aviation Australia. And it shows that traditional interstate TAFE rivalries can be put aside through commercial common sense, to deliver better results to industry,' Rod Welford said.
'This is leading to Aviation Australia becoming the primary resource for aircraft apprentice training in Australia, and has been the key facilitator in raising the national standards,' he said.
Jacinta Allan, Victorian Minister for Skills congratulated Kangan Batman TAFE on the agreement.
Ms Allan said that the Victorian Government had provided $250,000 so that Kangan Batman could provide state of the art training in a critical area of Australian skills development.
'These funds will be used to identify industry needs and develop appropriate training responses and are part of Victoria's $990 million investment in the VET sector since 1999.'
Aviation Australia was established by the Queensland Government to help overcome a skills shortage in the aviation and aerospace industry is the leading aviation technical training organisation and independent cabin crew training company in the region. Aviation Australia was the first EASA Part 147 training organisation approved to deliver basic aircraft maintenance training outside of the European Union.
Kangan Batman TAFE is a long established aviation engineering training organisation in Victoria and was the prime trainer of Ansett apprentices during the 1990s, and today provides support for Qantas' Victorian aircraft maintenance business.
