CAAS initiative to attract more engineers

by CHIEF CORRESPONDENT, TOM BALLANTYNE  

July 1st 2012

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The Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) has launched an initiative to attract more young apprentice aircraft engineers to boost manpower needs and cut training costs. Read More »

A CAAS apprentice at work. It wants to boost its numbers of aircraft engineers

It has rolled out an “Initiative to Accelerate Deployment of Aircraft Maintenance Engineers”, including a review of rules which could see the four-year apprenticeship period shortened by up to one year.

Singapore’s Institute of Higher Learning (IHL) graduates, who want to be aircraft engineers, must obtain the CAAS aircraft maintenance licence. Currently, they are provided with all the necessary training by their Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) employers.

By allowing IHLs to conduct part of the basic training as part of their aerospace curriculum, the students’ accumulated aircraft maintenance training hours can now be counted towards the hours required to qualify for a CAAS licence. 

The first IHL to tap into this initiative and obtain a SAR-147 Approved Maintenance Training Organisation certification from CAAS is Temasek Polytechnic (TP).

Yap Ong Heng, director general of the CAAS, said: “With more manpower required to support the growth of the aircraft maintenance sector, CAAS is constantly exploring ways to encourage more IHL graduates to join the industry.”