The chance is rather great that we will be facing a shortage of qualified aviation professionals for the first time in history if this issue is not addressed in an effective and proper way right now. In 2011, ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization) published a document entitled “Global and Regional 20-year Forecasts – Pilots, Maintenance Personnel, Air Traffic Controller”, which constitutes an independent study regarding civil aviation personnel and contributes to the aviation data and traffic forecasts for which the ICAO is recognized.

 

Study has shown that the global air transport network has doubled in size every 15 years since 1977 and, in the period of 20 years, from 2010 to 2030, it will double again. This means that the 2.9 billion airline passengers carried in 2012 will grow to over 6 billion by 2030. In this context, it is estimated that the number of commercially operated aircraft will jump from about 62,000 today to some 152,000 in 2030 worldwide. During this same period, the number of aircraft movements is expected to be doubled, from 26 million annually to nearly 52 million in 2030. Aviation community must ensure that there are enough qualified aviation professionals in every region of the world to support this growth. The ICAO survey indicates a potential global shortage over a 20-year period of 160,000 pilots, 360,000 maintenance personnel and 40,000 air traffic controllers, for a total of 560,000 aviation professionals. The region of Asia Pacific consisting of Vietnam would be suffering the most due to fast growth rate.

We have to admit that aviation training in Vietnam at the moment, especially pilot training is very limited and could not meet the demand driven by the growth in air traffic and by the number of aircraft deliveries. The fact is that 95% of pilots working for VietJet Air and Jestar Pacific are foreigners and this figure at Vietnam Airlines is 40%. Since 2011, the policy of socialization of ab-initio pilot training has been adopted which has been proved to be effective and the door to the profession of an airline pilot has been widely opened to every individual. 

Apart from learning and teaching activities, vocational education and career orientation are very important in any nation’s training and education system. These career orientation sessions will assist and give more choices for the pupils to make a decision of their future career at an early stage of knowledge, skills and attitude accumulation. With the objections of giving more information on a profession of an airline pilot, Aerospace Engineering Services JSC, together with its strategic partner, Eagle Flight Training of New Zealand is now cooperating with High Schools to conduct career talk. The topic of the talk is “Pilot training and employment opportunities”.

 

 

Over the past few days, the talk has been conducted at several high schools in Hanoi: Viet Duc, Chu Van An and Experimental High School. The talk has attracted the attention from both teachers and pupils and they are very interested in the information on the fast growth of the Vietnamese airlines, pilot demand and employment opportunities, pilot training process, a closer look at the profession of an airline pilot, and more importantly, they could see a path ahead towards the career, a path on which they will make their flying dreams come true. Career Talk will also be conducted at selective cities and provinces all over Vietnam in the upcoming time.