What you say makes a whole lot of sense. No doubt. But why can you count
on one hand the number of airlines that make college-level education a
priority/requirement?
Is it that they've reached the bottom of the barrel already? Are airline
hiring faster that society can educate the future pilots?
Is it that they just don't care? Is education a safety non-issue? I'm
saying this thinking of a high-rank airline executive that was recently
reported saying that safety wasn't a priority anymore since they ran a
survey with their passengers, who ranked safety as the 8th reason whay
they flew that airline! The first items were seating pitch and airline
chow!
Man...
Jean LaRoche (idea hungry, feed me!)
Aero Innovation
Montreal
>I have an MBA and fail to see how an MBA would be a requirement to move to
>the left seat of an airliner. If you are talking about operations
>management positions such as Chief Pilot or Director of Operations then,
>yes , it is appropriate. From my limited experience as a line pilot I
>think you need to screen for the ability to learn and the ability to
>communicate. A university degree is an indication of these skills. I know
>many excellent pilots that do not have college degrees but somehow they are
>open to learning and have acquired good communication skills. The
>screening process should be able to identify these people as well as
>college grads.
>
>A pet peeve of mine is the lack of continuing education or corporate
>support for continuing education in the pilot ranks. The corporate
>position seems to be that pilots automatically are qualified to supervise
>pilots because they are themselves pilots. If you are not going to have
>continuing education, then some of your new hires should have the
>background to move into management positions.
>
>Some people can not afford college and flying lessons. To automatically
>eliminate them from consideration is patently unjust. Other people don't
>go to univeristy because they frankly could not succeed in a four year
>program. A person without the ability to learn will not make a good
>employee down the road. Again it is a function of the screening process.
>
>Gerry