Roei Ganzarski APATS speech - Halldale file · Web viewRoei Ganzarski 2011 APATS speech....
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Transcript of Roei Ganzarski APATS speech - Halldale file · Web viewRoei Ganzarski 2011 APATS speech....
Roei Ganzarski 2011 APATS speech
Sawatdee khrap and thank you for your kind introduction.
I am excited to be in Bangkok talking about an issue that binds this industry
together: the need for a seamless pipeline of professional and competent, pilots
and technicians to ensure the continued safety and performance of our industry.
But first allow me to thank our hosts - Halldale - for the great work they continue
to do in bringing us together.
Last year, I was honored to speak at APATS in Kuala Lumpur, where I highlighted
the generational and technology changes that are taking place in our industry…and
in our flight decks… and what we as an industry, and as training providers, must
do to adapt our training methodologies, philosophies, and tools, to the learning
styles of this new workforce.
And make no mistake about it, our children’s generation—the next generation of
airline professionals—is very different than most of us in this room, in terms of
how they learn, how they communicate, and what their expectations are.
[show slides]
These advertisements show how we once portrayed the best of the best, and how
we created a passion for our industry. Looking at these advertisements, who
wouldn’t want to be a commercial airline pilot and be part of an industry that has
changed the way we work, the way we live…and the way in which we think about
and experience the world.
To those of us who grew up with these posters, our industry is THE industry to be
in. Yet today, we are seeing fewer and fewer people wanting to join our ranks.
Instead, people under the age of 35 are opting for careers in high technology,
software development, medicine and yes…even law.
Let me give you some perspective on the world of those under 35 years of age. By
the way if you were not sure, let me clarify, I am not under 35 anymore…
If you counted the under 35s in China, it would create the fourth largest country in
the world, twice the entire population of the United States. The third largest
country, by the way, would be the community of more than 750 million worldwide
Facebook users. In this region, as well, the demographics are similar: half the
population of Thailand, as well as neighboring Malaysia and Vietnam are under 35
years of age.
The United States is no different. I recently visited the Google campus in Seattle.
Almost everyone was under the age of 35. Many had their dogs with them at the
office. There were ping pong tables, game consoles, and lounge chairs throughout
the site. The walls were colorful and employees were walking around in sandals
and t-shirts. The place felt alive and fun. Everyone had a smile on their face.
When is the last time anyone in this room walked around their own work area in
search of fun from the perspective of the new generation we are trying to attract?
Compared to global icons like Google, Amazon, Microsoft, and Apple to name a
few – we in aviation must seem dull and boring. We have lost the luster and the
magic that brought most of us into this industry all those years ago. In the words of
a younger pop icon Justin Timberlake, we need to “bring the sexy back” in order to
enlarge the pool of people entering our pipeline. And let me assure you, we need a
large pipeline.
According to the Boeing Flight Services 2011 Current Market Outlook, over the
next 20 years, to fly the more than 30,000 new commercial airplanes that will be
added to our skies, the industry will need 460,000 pilots, or nearly double the
number of pilots flying today.
That means, on average, we will need to add 23,000 new pilots every year for the
next 20 years…pilots who first need to be attracted to our industry, and then
trained. We have an even larger need for technicians.
Who will train all these people? I don’t mean what training company or what
airline. I literally mean – WHO will train these people?
If we are having a hard time finding pilots to fly the line – in fact according to
recent news there are more than a few airlines in this region alone that have either
reduced flights or even grounded aircraft for lack of people to operate them – then
how do we expect to take those precious pilots and divert them to teaching in a
classroom or in a simulator?
By Boeing’s estimate, to meet the demand for new pilots, the training industry will
need a minimum of 1,200 new pilot instructors every year. And every year for the
next five years, that number will increase by 250 instructors. Let me repeat that –
1,200 new pilot instructors next year, and almost 2,000 new instructors by 2015.
These are in addition to the 5,500 instructors that are teaching around the world
today.
The question for us as individual airlines, training companies, and as an industry is:
where will we find them?
Let me pose the question another way…if we are expecting a different result, is the
way we have been doing things to date, the same way we should be doing things
going forward? Or is that not the definition of insanity?
Given the fact that the pool of pilots is being depleted at a significant rate globally,
is our current system robust enough to meet the future needs of our industry?
The question I challenge us all with today is very simple: as leaders in our
industry, are we ready to accept a new generation of professional instructors,
selected and put in place based on their teaching aptitude and ability rather than on
the number of hours flown or the number of stripes on their sleeves? A generation
of instructors that are not necessarily experienced pilots?
What a radical concept… Selecting, qualifying and judging professionals based on
their competencies rather than on the number of hours flown. The concept sounds
similar to another program Boeing led the industry with called MPL, doesn’t it?
So as an industry, it is possible to change our thinking and our actions!
A recent survey conducted by Boeing in conjunction with the International Airline
Pilots Association provides some interesting observations about pilot training
around the world. When asked if over the past five years, pilots had had a negative
experience in training, more than half of the captains and first officers said - yes.
Of the negative experiences, the most commonly mentioned were instructor
intimidation, lack of instructor knowledge, lack of instructor standardization,
inapropriate assessments, and airline SOPs being violated by the instructors
themselves.
The list goes on and on, but it points to a common thread…even the best of pilots
do not necessarily make the best of, or even good instructors. That is not a
criticism, it is reality…pilots are not traditionally trained on how to teach or
evaluate students. Rather we spend a lot of time and resources teaching them to
efficently and safely fly airplanes.
I am reminded of a world in which this topic is a non-issue, the world of academia.
I have been fortunate in my life and in my career, to have attended some of the
world’s best business schools where in fact, the best instructors I had were not
necessarily titans of industry or CEOs of large companies; rather they were people
with a passion and ability to teach, who were trained in the various arts and
sciences of the business world.
They were professionals who were well organized, who were patient, who
understood how to communicate, and understood when to challenge their students
and when to let students find their own way.
They were people who could intuitively connect with their classes at any given
moment and come up with the best way to transfer knowledge and increase
retention.
In academia we call them professors, and we take for granted that they do not
necessarily have practical experience in the topic in which they are excellent
teachers.
And yes, like in every place of work, some are better than others, and some are
very bad. But that usually does not have much to do with their technical
experience, rather it is based on the quality of their teaching.
Interestingly, in a study of the top 40 professors under the age of 40 at American
and UK business schools (as ranked by their students) , the majority of them did
not have significant business experience outside of the university.
And listen to how some of their students described them: “He challenges you to do
the best you have ever done”; “she encourages deep reflective thought, conflict and
uncomfortable conversations”; “he brings complex topics down to basic concepts
and propositions”.
For the most part, the words used to describe them are simple like: passionate,
dynamic, respectful, approachable and supportive.
I, like many of you, and in fact a large number of our industry leaders, were trained
and educated by some of these great teachers.
Given the current status of our industry, the great demands on it from a workforce
perspective, and the generational challenges we face, I believe it is time we took a
professional approach to teaching. We must make it attractive enough where
aviation instruction is viewed as a worthy career and not as a default position or
one to cconsider only upon retirement.
But that is not enough, because as we now know, the pilots of tomorrow are
different from the pilots of today. They are more tech savvy, they are more
connected, they are more worldly, and they are less patient.
So our professional teachers need to be trained to understand that learning is an
intensely personal pursuit, and that the way to get a student to reach their fullest
potential is to stop the “one size fits all” model and move to a more individualized
training program adapted to the student’s strengths, the student’s weaknesses and
the student’s experiences. Maria Montessori figured this out in Italy in 1897, and
today there are more than 7,000 accredited Monetssori schools around the world
where students learn at their own pace.
And like Montessori schools, these new instructors we will be introducing, must be
able to themselves, constantly adapt to the students, learning styles, and tools that
they will encounter in the future.
As an industry, we have made great strides with regards to technology both in the
airplanes and in our training devices. As a large user and conveyor of those
technologies, Boeing Flight Services has never waivered in our support of them…
we may have questioned the costs, as have our clients, but we have never waivered
in our support.
As an industry, we have also developed and improved our technologies to meet the
needs of the industry, and we have done it with greater accessibility than ever
before. On the 787, as an example, Boeing together with Thales has taken the
fidelity and operability of the full-flight simulator and built it into lower cost
training devices and portable desk-top devices. So this is not about technology.
And this is not about courseware. As an industry, we are indeed addressing the
operational and safety issues that pilots face by developing specific courses for
specific needs, from CAT II/III landings to Polar Operations to RNP-AR .
Courseware is not the issue I am addressing today.
This is about the plain and simple—and critical—task of teaching; no matter what
the technology, no matter what the courseware. I don’t know about you, but if
given a choice, I would rather have a great teacher and poor tools, than a poor
teacher and great tools. We at Boeing of course strive to deliver both great teachers
and great tools…but I digress.
This is about developing a new generation of professional aviation instructors.
This is about understanding that there is a large difference between being a great
pilot and being a great instructor.
This is about making an instructor’s position as valued as that of any job in the
industry, perhaps even moreso.
To meet our commitment to the flying public, to the government agencies and to
each other, it seems to me that we have three waypoints to meet our critical need
for professional instructors.
First, in the near-term, we could and should continue to partner with airlines to
encourage pilots to instruct on their downtime (or post retirement or medical leave)
either for their specific airline or with other airlines or training organizations.
But, as I have said before, being an experienced pilot is different than being a great
instructor. That means we have to spend the time and resources to train those
pilots who want to be instructors, on what it takes to be a great teacher, and then
evaluate them to see if they fit the role.
Second, we need to formally establish and upgrade global requirements of
Certified Instructors at training academies and schools around the world. Having
flying experience or going through a generic technical course should not be enough
to qualify someone as an instructor.
At Boeing for example, we take our instructor candidates through a very rigorous
and lengthy training program that includes everything from technical knowledge
through best practices of instruction and ongoing recurrent training sessions, and
not everyone (including those with tens of thousands of hours) necessarily makes it
through.
Yes, it does indeed increase our costs. But there is little substitute for quality
training, as it is reflected in ongoing safe and efficient operations. By the way even
after completing their training, we continuously monitor and audit the performance
of our instructors in the field.
But we are only one organization and we need to make the qualifications of
instruction rigorous and demanding globally and equally, so that we know only the
right people are allowed to teach our current and future employees.
And let me be clear…I believe there will always be a need for veteran pilots to
mentor and teach our new young pilots on the job in the flight deck. Just maybe not
upfront in the classroom, or in the simulator.
Third, we need to make the profession of the pilot, the technician and more over
the instructor, comparable to alternative career paths. For example, academically
why shouldn’t candidates exploring a career in aviation, be able to earn academic
degrees as their counterparts in other industries do?
I am not talking about students, who go to well regarded aviation universities like
Embry Riddle in the United States, to get a full standard 4-year degree and a pilot’s
license.
I am talking about the standard ab-initio, the type rating, the recurrent training, the
MPL program. These are all programs that teach both theory and practice and yet
for the most part, provide the student no academic credit.
Not only does this reduce the perceived value of our education and training, it also
limits the funding available to young people evaluating their career path. And these
days as we all know, with limited funding comes limited attraction.
In United States universities , for example, 66 percent of all undergraduate students
receive some type of financial aid. And by the way, these are loans provided
directly to students and do not include loans that parents take to finance their
children’s education.
This financial aid for the most part is approved only for academically accredited
programs… which at this point does not include aviation training. That in itself
limits the potential students that will come into our industry and detracts from our
industry’s attractiveness and reputation.
I believe that by addressing all three of these options in tandem, we can help
ensure our collective commitment to a safe and efficient air transport system.
In my opinion, by doing this, we will enhance the industry’s position on the critical
issue of what ICAO calls “the next generation aviation professional”.
As an industry, we can transform this from an industry initiative…into what is
really needed, an industry imperative.
I would like to think that next year, at APATS, we will have already been exposed
to the kinds of advertisements you saw at the beginning of my remarks…but they
would be focused on professional instructors.
But what would be nicer, and perhaps more realistic, is to see the kinds of
advertisements that rekindle the magic and the majesty of our industry.
(show slides)
This is a great time to be in our industry. We are growing, we are expanding, we
are making the world smaller and smaller by the day. We need to work hard to
make our industry attractive and alluring for the young, the talented, the creative,
and the passionate.
Thank you