Efforts to raise air-transport industry standards in China have not only been confined to the pilot, but have extended across the workforce. New training initiatives and investments have been targeted at high-level executives, middle-level managers, operations staff, down to line mechanics.
China's call for help has been answered at all levels by European and US aerospace companies. "The growth rate here has been extraordinary, and one of the things we recognised was that the input was going to continue to exceed the capacity to absorb unless we did something about it," says Boeing's Tim Premselaar.
A cross-section of international initiatives include executive and managerial courses run by Rolls-Royce for the Civil Aviation Administration of China, leadership workshops organised by AlliedSignal for Aviation Industries of China, Boeing-hosted classes in air-traffic control, Airbus technical symposia and a $17 million investment in joint-venture engine training by CFM International.
The latter (Aero Engine Maintenance Training Centre at the Civil Aviation Flight College's Guanghan campus) was opened in November 1996 and is shortly to receive a new CFM56-5 training engine, in addition to the CFM56-3s and CF6-80C2s already in place. "This is a training arrangement that is unique to China," says General Electric China president Bill Munro. "It offers big savings for Chinese airlines which no longer have to send staff to France or the USA."
The German Government poured a further DM29 million ($16.2 million) into the Aeronautical Apprentice Training Centre (AATC) in Beijing, before handing over sole responsibility for it to Air China in July. The Centre is now administered by Aircraft Maintenance and Engineering (AMECO), itself a joint venture between Air China and Lufthansa Technik.
The AATC has admitted around 80 middle-school-level students a year since 1993, with the first year graduating in 1996. "The school has proved to be very attractive. We have a lot of students who want to come here," says the centre's director, Huang Huaiyi.
The curriculum is based on the German dual system of theory and practice, with students spending about one-third of their three-year apprenticeship in the classroom, with the remaining on-the-job training divided between AMECO and AATC workshops. The AATC is also now undertaking training for Air China's Inner Mongolia branch carrier and German conglomerate Siemens.
"We have to match our staff requirements with the training capabilities of the school. Until now we've been able to absorb all the students, but we can't always guarantee this. The demand is now for mechanics rather than electricians and this is one of the reasons why we're selling our capabilities to Siemens," says AMECO support and marketing executive director Andreas Meisel.
Airframe manufacturers have also been lending their weight to maintenance training, with Boeing having already conducted 737 courses at the Civil Aviation Institute of China in Tienjin and Airbus scheduled to begin in-country technician training at its new Beijing support centre from late October.
Source: Flight International
