UK flying training schools fear that they are in danger of losing a Government scheme which can give degree status for professional-pilot graduates, along with tax relief which reduces course prices by up to ú20,000, according to a leading flying-training school.
Training-industry concern has been growing about the survival of the scheme, known as the National Vocational Qualification (NVQ), because it was accredited for flying training more than two years ago, but no pilots have yet completed all the modules required for a full NVQ. The head of the UK Aviation Training Association (ATA), Tony Hines, warns that the NVQ for pilots "-will not have an indefinite life if pilots do not achieve the full qualification".
Sales and marketing manager of the Bournemouth, UK-based European College of Aviation (ECA), Bob McGuire, says that the problem is that an approved school can train pilots with a "frozen" air-transport pilots licence to commercial-pilots-licence level, but that the final NVQ modules involve occupational experience, which can be gained only by working with the airlines.
The airlines have failed to close the NVQ training loop because they have not arranged to have accredited NVQ assessors among their training staffs. McGuire explains: "After two years of running the courses at approved schools, early student-intakes have found it difficult to find an airline in a position to enable them to complete their NVQs."
To provide a solution, the ECA has teamed with nearby Bournemouth and Poole College of Further Education, to provide an ATA-approved professional-pilot NVQ, with training modules on customer-service and personal-development issues.
Hines comments that, if training organisations such as the ECA are accredited as assessors, they can carry out the NVQ assessment on behalf of the airline employers, finally closing the loop.
Source: Flight International
