Piyalee Chatterjee Ghosh
Founder and Head of Product,
Myfledge Institutes of Aviation and Hospitality.
The aviation sector is back in action. As per IATA Annual Review Report 2022 indicating demand for air travel “By the end of 2023, most regions will be at—or exceeding— pre-pandemic levels of demand”. To be able to cater to this demand the sector is in need of highly skilled and trained professionals more than ever before.
Staggering statistics explain this further. For example in India alone, direct employment in the aviation and aeronautical manufacturing sector is expected to increase to around 3,50,000 by 2024 as per the Ministry of Civil Aviation.
Being a highly technical and regulation-driven industry, every kind of role needs talent with specialized skill-sets. Training is the epicenter of any aviation professional’s career.
Tech has elevated training to the next level. Both freshers and existing talent are able to skill and upskill efficiently and faster through tech-led evolved training and L&D (Learning and Development) practices. It has helped assess skills and create agile training programmes to navigate location and time constraints. The pandemic accelerated the adoption of tech-first learning.
Let’s look at some intelligent ways technology has helped fill in gaps in training.
Learner focused curriculum
The new generation are tech and digital world natives Digital methods like e-learning, virtual classrooms and webinars have shown increased engagement levels from students. Technology also helps enhance practical training by collecting data from students. The psychological state, heart rate and various other indicators can be monitored to track performance in training programmes. This helps trainers provide better learning solutions to learners.
Helps re-create real situations
Many aviation roles require professionals to receive practical training in real environments. The use of AR, VR and Mixed Reality helps create simulated environments giving the trainees hands-on realistic training and experience. Be it engineers learning about the aircraft’s parts or a pilot-in-training navigating their path, extended reality tech helps enhance the professional’s skill-set without wastage of time and resources.
Integrated training approach
Tech helps to coordinate and integrate various kinds of methodologies used in training. This gives trainers a holistic picture of progress. Training students across geographical boundaries has helped draw a level playing field for diverse individuals belonging to various corners of the world.
Based on this, major potential lies in standardizing requirements and benchmarks across the industry. A significant effort is being made by institutes and companies in this direction.
Technology is not going to replace the entire training infrastructure immediately. It will work as a complementary model alongside other methods. Overtly focusing on the tech instead of the task training is not recommended. The focus will be on selecting tech, be it a tool or medium based on the task. Trainers need to look at scaling knowledge and competency of individuals, rather than just skill tests. With air travel booming, tech-first innovations will increasingly enter the picture. Individuals trained in and with tech will emerge with an edge, poised for success as future-ready global talent.