Organised Skill Development

The Indian civil aviation has never been a sunshine sector and within it, Business Aviation has possibly been the worst affected sub-sector. Viewed as a luxury resource, it has been severely taxed and coarsely treated. The number of privately owned aircraft (fixed wing and rotary wing) flying in expansive Indian skies is only around 200. The website of the Director General Civil Aviation (DGCA) no longer lists privately owned aircraft for unknown reasons. Some other aircraft, largely used for “Business Aviation” purposes operate under Non-Scheduled Operators Permit (NSOP) so as to avoid the much higher differential taxation regime applicable to aircraft imported for private or business use. Costs of operation are daunting and every business aviation entity, irrespective of the affluence level of its principals, looks at cutting costs; expectedly, most of them are content with meeting the minimum regulatory requirements of skill levels and training of personnel to keep those skill levels current. This article looks at organised skill development in India for Business Aviation and its contents which are equally relevant to NSOP entities.

ORGANISED SKILL DEVELOPMENT IN INDIA

In September 2014, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the ‘Make In India’ programme and in July 2015, he followed it up with ‘Skill India’, a campaign which aimed at training over 40 crore people in different skills by 2022. If quizzed, many Indian citizens would not know that there is a Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE) tasked with the co-ordination of all skill development efforts across the country, elimination of disconnect between demand and supply of skilled manpower, building the vocational and technical training framework, skill up-gradation, building of new skills, and innovative thinking not only for existing jobs but also jobs that are to be created.

In pursuit of a ‘Skilled India’, it is aided functionally by the National Skill Development Agency (NSDA), the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC), the National Skill Development Fund (NSDF), 33 Sector Skill Councils (SSCs) and 187 training partners registered with the NSDC. The Ministry also intends to work with the existing network of skill development centres, universities and other alliances in the field. Further, collaborations with relevant Central Ministries, state governments, international organisations, industry and NGOs have been initiated for multi-level engagement and more impactful implementation of skill development efforts. However, aviation skills seem to have taken a back seat so far.

AVIATION SKILL DEVELOPMENT AND TRAINING

In the hierarchy of skills relevant to Business Aviation, the demand for skilled cockpit crew is unquestionably top priority. Due to the high salaries that pilots command in a market that has always remained short of pilots, it is as frighteningly expensive as it is lucrative. The DGCA has officially approved 31 flying training organisations in India of which, remarkably, only one - the Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Udaan Akademi (IGRUA), is run by the Central Government. So much for ‘Skill India’ in aviation! The IGRUA enjoys a very good professional reputation and has a structured training programme with the right emphasis on ground training which is indeed the bedrock of safe flying training. Each trainee undergoes 18 months of training including 185 hours on a single-engine aircraft and 15 hours exposure to a twin-engine one. A trainee can also opt to notch up a BSc (Aviation) degree which will take three years to complete. Industry feedback on IGRUA trainees joining aviation industry is generally good. However, it can only train a maximum of 150 persons at any given time; the other institutions approved by DGCA have even lower capacity. As a result, the demand for flying training constantly exceeds the supply thus forcing many aspirants to move over to much more expensive institutions abroad.

After successful completion of flying training in a school outside India, the trainee has to obtain DGCA certification again irrespective of any approvals from national civil aviation regulators that the foreign training institute may have. Flying schools in India have the capacity to train around 1,000 pilots a year but only around 350 student pilots successfully complete training in India every year while an equal number go abroad. Even so, there is a shortage of Indian pilots for flying jobs in India. For the last decade, the government has been desperately trying to get rid of expatriate pilots from Indian civil aviation but the indigenous flying skill development machinery has not cooperated and the latest postponement of the deadline to remove all expatriate pilots is now January 31, 2020. To summarise, there is a need to build up more government-run flying schools so that the most critical skill needed to sustain Business Aviation receives a boost.

In the hierarchy of skills relevant to Business Aviation, the demand for skilled cockpit crew is unquestionably top priority

The next most needed skill-set is related to maintaining the expensive flying machines Business Aviation uses. The list of DGCA-approved Aircraft Maintenance Engineering (AME) Training Institutes runs to 51 but the general level of satisfaction is low and some of these lack access to an actual aircraft to get to grips with their discipline. The initial training is on Avionics or Mechanical streams and after completion there is a hands-on or On-The-Job training phase to qualify a trainee as a qualified (licensed) AME. While the airlines have larger aircraft with well-established training facilities set up by Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs), the same is not true for business aircraft which are small and held in small numbers by Indian entities. More often than not, individuals hired to work by Indian Business Aviation have to train abroad on the specific aircraft they are expected to maintain and the cost factor is high.

Cabin crew skills are also critical inasmuch as they are not meant just for courtesies extended to passengers but also for cabin safety, especially under emergency conditions. DGCA regulations do not require carriage of a cabin crew on board for fewer than ten passengers and most of the Business Aviation aircraft have less than ten seats. However, cabin crew still get carried for the tasks related to onboard catering and facilitating crew comfort. The DGCA has approved all airlines to carry out aircraft-specific cabin crew training. Three training institutes - Air One Aviation, Ligare Aviation Limited and Reliance Commercial Dealers Limited, have been approved to carry out training on some of the aircraft being operated by Business Aviation in India.

As Business Aviation and NSOP holders do not require a trained, qualified and current dispatcher (as is the case for an airline), this one aspect of training is left out of Business Aviation. However, the operations functions are still required to be carried out by someone who understands basic aviation terminology and can carry out most functions related to despatch (while the actual despatch is authorised by the pilot himself). Most of these operations personnel learn on the job. The same goes for security although some Business Aviation entities do get their security staff to undergo full-fledged aviation security courses run under the auspices of the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS).

Another important area in aviation is air safety; the Aircraft Accident Investigation Board (AAIB) which has been shifted from the DGCA to the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) conducts Accident Prevention and Investigation training and empowers air safety heads appointed by aircraft operators.

CONCLUSION

Having had an overview of the organised skill development training infrastructure in India for aviation, one can see that there is a need for more. Under Skill India, the NSDC has set up an Aerospace and Aviation Sector Skill Council (AASSC) which is expected to work as the apex body for skill development in the rapidly developing aviation sector. Its promoters are the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), the Bangalore Chamber of Industries and Commerce (BCIC) and the Society of Indian Aerospace Technologies & Industries (SIATI) and its Governing Council has representation from the top management of the promoter organisations, leading airline companies, research organisations, vocational training providers, NSDC, Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), the Airports Authority of India (AAI) and the MoCA.

Its stated vision of bridging the gap between demand and supply of skilled manpower in the aviation sector is expected to be achieved through setting up of skill delivery mechanisms through affiliated training providers and the creation of accreditation bodies leading to certification of fresh trainees and re-training. However, as of now, ‘Skill India’ lacks the velocity to achieve this objective and Business Aviation, at the bottom of the Indian civil aviation pecking order, continues to suffer from a skill development deficiency disorder. One hopes that ‘Skill India’ will shed its lethargic pace and get underway in earnest soon.