Throughout the technical sector 60,000 people are needed. Airline KLM is fishing in the same pond as many other companies and is experiencing problems with hijackers on the coast.
KLM employs approximately 4,000 people in technical services. The influx of young MBO graduates is particularly necessary, because they tinker with aircraft and can also move on to the position of ground engineer. This is the person who signs off the aircraft after maintenance to take to the air safely.
Shortage of technicians
The Dutch Association of Aviation Technicians (NVLT) wrote the report last year All Hands On Deck, due to the shortage of technicians. According to Piet Visser, the chairman of the NVLT, KLM is currently unable to operate all flights due to staff shortages.
“In the next five to six years, about 30 to 40 percent of technicians will retire. That will be a problem. If you enter an MBO now, it will take at least seven to eight years before you are trained as a ground engineer,” says Visser.
According to the NVLT, the training to become a ground engineer is tough and you have to complete twenty modules. First you must obtain your MBO diploma and then you must undergo practical training through an employer for three to four years. Only ten people successfully complete this process every year. Moreover, technical personnel are scarce and in demand and are being poached by companies such as ASML or Essent.
No sense in irregular working hours
Moreover, aircraft maintenance is a continuous process, 7 days a week, 24 hours a day, inside and outside the hangar. Many young people do not want irregular working hours. Moreover, they have plenty of choice to work elsewhere.
The Netherlands has five specialized MBO courses, two HBO courses and TU Delft, which prepares students for a job in aeronautical engineering. The intake for MBO courses has been declining over the past three years, according to figures from the Aviation Education Stakeholders Board (CvBLo). Not all graduates end up working in the aviation sector either.
‘Aviation sector is only now waking up’
Mathijn Korf, program manager of the CvBLo, agrees: “I don’t have hard figures, but I have heard it said that a third after completing their aeronautical engineering training will not work in the sector, but somewhere else in technology. The aviation sector is only now waking up. “There was always a huge attraction, but due to the corona crisis, many people were sent home and technicians went to work elsewhere.”
Joris Melkert, professor of aeronautical engineering at TU Delft, still sees sufficient interest for the universities of applied sciences and TU. “There are more applications than training places in aviation technology, but of all those graduates, 40 percent ultimately end up in the aviation sector and 60 percent find a job elsewhere in technology, or they go to work as a consultant or in the financial sector. Because engineers are good at calculate.”
Aging
KLM had to let go of 6,000 employees due to corona. Air traffic has now almost returned to pre-corona levels and almost 6,000 new colleagues have been hired. Due to the aging population and outflow, society is looking for more personnel.
KLM is doing everything it can to recruit new staff, says spokesperson Marieke Verhoeven. “We visit schools, we train trainees and we now also have nine status holders working at KLM’s technical department.” In addition to the 450 technicians, KLM is also looking for more than 200 pilots and new pushback and catering drivers this year.
2024-03-09 14:03:53
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