Swinburne University of Technology - Melbourne Australia

Pilots to take off with a brand new qualification

Story by Melissa Marino

Aspiring pilots can fast-track their path to a job while improving their general education through a new aviation qualification backed by Australia’s major airline. In the face of a worldwide pilot shortage, Swinburne University of Technology and Qantas have joined forces with flying school General Flying Services to offer a new aviation degree to help more students into the cockpits of commercial aircraft faster, and at a lower upfront cost.

The adoption by Qantas of the 18-month Associate Degree of Aviation course as part of its cadet pilot program is a paradigm shift in airline cadet schemes, offering university studies as part of the flying program for the first time in Australia.

The arrangement slashes upfront costs by giving Qantas’s cadet pilots access to tertiary student loans through the Federal Government’s FEE-HELP loan scheme. It will also introduce students to commercial cockpit conditions much sooner.

A similar arrangement is also being established at Griffith University in Queensland.

Swinburne’s aviation programs coordinator Stephen Fankhauser says that for the first time in living memory, some commercial operators are having to curtail services due to a lack of flight crew, a shortfall being seen around the world.

He says the new course will help redress this by making a career as a pilot more affordable at the start.

Mr Fankhauser says the new arrangement combines tertiary study with flight training. He says students entering the Qantas Cadet Pilot Program, who would undertake the associate degree, typically would have little or no flying experience.

Aspiring airline pilots who are not part of a cadet pilot program can still study for an aviation degree and independently build up enough flying hours to go into an airline’s usual direct-entry pilot stream.

Until now, in either the cadet pilot or direct-entry streams, students have been faced with the daunting burden of paying all of the substantial costs of flight training.

For the new Qantas Swinburne associate degree, upfront costs are slashed from $110,000 to $30,000 because the remainder of the fees can be deferred through FEE-HELP. It realises a long-held desire of Qantas chief pilot and flight operations head Captain Chris Manning to place a flying career within reach of more people.

"The driver was to open up piloting to the broader community," says Captain Manning, one of the architects of the new program. "It rankled with me that there were good people out there for whom $110,000 (upfront) was over the top."

Under FEE-HELP Qantas cadet program students undertaking the Swinburne associate degree or the Griffith bachelor degree and graduate diploma, are, for the first time, eligible for a student loan of up to $80,000 or about 75 per cent of the program costs. From 2009, subject to accreditation, FEE-HELP will also be available for the Swinburne bachelor degree and available to all domestic students in that program.

Students who get FEE-HELP have to pay back the loan once they are earning a certain salary, but Captain Manning says the initial help will widen the pool of prospective pilots. "What it means is that if you can get together $30,000 upfront, then you can become a Qantas pilot if you have the ability, whereas prior to this you’d need $110,000."

Mr Fankhauser says that, in addition to the more attainable costs, the prospect of gaining an academic qualification as part of a cadet pilot program may also encourage more parents to support their child’s desire to become a pilot.

Prospective students may also be encouraged by the broader options the tertiary association provides, including formal education in safety and air transport management, which could open doors to future managerial opportunities.

Early signs are that the new degree is going to fulfil the airlines’ wishes. Captain Manning says applications for the 2008 cadet program are already double last year’s, numbering more than 400.

Mr Fankhauser believes the new system will produce better-educated pilots, while an investment by General Flying Services in new Cessna aircraft is aimed at preparing students for training on large passenger airliners more quickly.

The new aircraft are equipped with modern glass cockpits using digital avionics, like those used in commercial passenger jets. Previously, pilot training in small planes could only be done using an analogue system of mechanical and electrical instruments, which are no longer used in larger commercial jets.