A lack of trained and certified aviation mechanics would spell disaster for transportation, logistics, shipping, and many other industries. One way to head off this possible shortage is to create a pipeline of skilled candidates from all walks of life — and that’s exactly what Transfr is helping contribute to.
However, building this new workforce depends on combining the best technology and right training infrastructure. To get a handle on where we are and what it will take to meet future demand, we sat down with Transfr instructional designer Jeff Hodson and Southern Illinois University professor Karen Johnson on Upward, the Transfr podcast, and discussed how their work is helping make this goal a reality.
Creative expert-approved training simulations
Leading off, Jeff laid out the appeal of building partnerships to create VR training modules in aviation maintenance: “Here at Transfr, we love skilled trades. VR is actually really great for training in the skilled trades [and] aviation is an area that has well-paying jobs and a lot of growth opportunity — and there’s a skills gap. So it’s just a natural fit.”
Karen Johnson had connected with Transfr as a subject matter expert. She’s an aviation maintenance instructor at SIU with decades of experience.
“Since 1999, I’ve been working in aviation maintenance,” Karen explains. “I started out turning wrenches just like every other tech out there and transitioned into academia in the 2000s — I’ve been teaching the trade ever since.”
Karen teaches curricula in the Airframe and Power Plant Technicians program (“A&P”), which need to adhere to standards set by the FAA. Exacting, but as she puts it, “a very clear guide on what skills we have to teach.” Building simulations based on these very clear guidelines requires intense collaboration between the technical educator and the instructional designers to accurately convey the specific skills trainees need to enter the field.
“There are details that I myself don’t think about. To me, they’re automatic,” Karen says. “I don’t think that I need to explain them, then [realize I’m] talking to a set of instructional designers that has never seen this equipment, never done this work. There’s a disconnect there at first, but it’s easily overcome.
Jeff agreed that a “very close back and forth” was necessary, adding: “[In} a simulation, we have to figure out exactly how that task works, how little parts on engines work. Karen is definitely a saint, entertaining all of our questions. I feel like I should probably go out and get an A&P certification after all this is done! I definitely know more names of engine parts than I ever thought I would.”
VR prepares trainees for real-world skills training
There are multiple advantages when it comes to using VR to train aviation mechanics: First off, aviation-related training obviously requires significant investment in equipment, including actual aircraft to work on. While VR isn’t a replacement for hands-on work with the aircraft, it allows learners to familiarize themselves with the aviation maintenance skillset. Karen considers it “a stepping stone” to labs and hands-on work: “Before you’re actually in the hangar and putting your hands on tools and planes… you’re in the VR sims, practicing tasks there.”
Secondly, it’s a powerful equalizer that can expose students to the field and pique interest, even when they’re not yet able to access physical facilities. Along similar lines, while aviation maintenance can be a high-risk skillset in practice, a unique benefit of VR is that it provides a completely safe environment. A student is away from both the critical eyes of classmates and from real-world safety repercussions of errors, free to learn from their mistakes.
Jeff points out: “There is definitely a high risk, so VR is really great because no one’s perfect. It allows students to get those mistakes out in a safe space, someplace that has low stakes. VR allows learners or trainees to actually see some of the consequences of what might happen if they do something wrong, but without the real danger or expensive costs.”
VR training is also a great way to ramp up a new program from scratch without the space, materials, or cost of a physical lab. Even if investments are ultimately being made in a physical facility, students can jump right in using VR while the “real world” catches up.
The future of aviation maintenance: Up, up, up!
When promoting skills training toward a “career path,” it’s always important to consider the future outlook: There may be plenty of demand at the present moment, but no one wants a set of career skills poised to go the way of videotape technicians and telephone switchboard operators. The great news is, it doesn’t seem likely that needs for skilled aviation technicians will take a dip any time soon.
Karen sees a bright future for students in the field: “Aviation maintenance… is on an upward trajectory. Thirty years in the future, it’s going to be the same way… there’s some changes coming down the pipeline, like unmanned aerial systems, we’ll see some changes. But the aviation maintenance position — the job, the work, the tasks, those will still be there. I see high school kids every year trying to decide what they want to do and I have nothing bad to say to them. They’re almost guaranteed a job when they’re done. A job with upper mobility and excellent pay and you can see the world. Aviation is global.”
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