There's trouble brewing in Canada's aviation industry, and it's not about security, fares or uncertain finances.

Without a major influx of technical and maintenance staff during the next five to eight years, many aircraft across the country could be grounded as the aviation industry heads into another growth cycle, says Steve Dick, executive director and CEO of the Canadian Aviation Maintenance Council (CAMC).

"We've got the fourth-largest aviation industry in the world. We're out of the bottom (of the current slump) and its anticipated growth will be between four and five per cent globally a year. But the problem is we don't have enough bodies to make sure this growth is possible here," says Dick, interviewed at the council's Ottawa headquarters.

The Canadian aviation maintenance and aerospace manufacturing industry employs more than 100,000 people and has sales of more than $24 billion annually.

Ashley Fraser, Business Edge
CEO Steve Dick has piloted the Canadian Aviation Maintenance Council to a prominent position in the global aviation industry.

"In the 1980s and '90s, everyone (in the industry) got interested in computers and high-tech and the human resources part lost momentum," Dick says. The consequence is that within the next eight years, 40 to 70 per cent of aviation maintenance technicians will be eligible for retirement.

"Those numbers spell trouble," Dick says. It's a situation he has focused on since 2000 when he took on the head job of the council, which is Canada's only agency responsible for strategic human-resource development in technical-training curricula, services and certification. This includes everything from machinists and simulators to painters and refuellers.

Dick, a former airline manager who has also owned an aviation maintenance business, reorganized finances at the council and added revenue streams in areas where industry members were begging for help, such as creating training and occupational standards that didn't exist.

The CAMC is now financially self-sustaining, has increased its operating budget fivefold to $3.2 million annually and has added 19 employees for a total of 23. Growth has been so spectacular that Dick admits he's trying to slow things down so as to be better able to take care of the not-for-profit council's 185 industry partners. The partners range from airlines (Air Canada) to colleges (British Columbia Institute of Technology, BCIT) and avionics companies (Canadian Propeller Ltd.).

Today's aviation industry is no longer about invention but about re-engineering, and CAMC, which was established as a sector council in 1991, has rewritten the book on how to maintain flying stock. It creates standards for industry partners and national curricula for technical schools, as well as providing certification for foreign nationals wanting to work in Canada.

International contacts are vital because without enough new, home-grown troops, Canada will have to import technical workers. The offshore links are also helping develop international contracts that could make CAMC the world leader in flight support.

Skill development in Canada is 25 years ahead of any other nation and many of those countries have come calling, Dick says.

He's had negotiations in Asia where airlines often focus on ad-hoc maintenance rather than training. CAMC also is in discussions with Vietnam's government to develop programs specific to the national carrier, Vietnam Airlines. The programs would then be licensed to training institutions, in effect teaching them how to teach.

An even bigger plum is available in China, where the government has asked CAMC to train its aviation people in safety management. There also are continuing negotiations in Singapore and Malaysia and feelers are out in Taiwan, South Africa and South America.

"It works both ways. (Foreign) airlines feel they need us, but Canadian carriers, our partners, also operate in these markets and they want to make sure they get the right services," Dick says.

This guidance is not just for developing countries trying to upgrade their aviation-training skills. Last year, American giant Northwest Airlines, the fourth-largest airline in the world, became the first non-Canadian airline to join CAMC.

"Standards are similar in both countries, but south of the border they've never really dealt with the people side of the equation. They recognized this and wanted to get access to our occupational standards and accreditation services," Dick says.

"This new partnership stems from the mutual objective to operate with the best possible standards, certification and training materials available in the industry," says Thomas Becher, Northwest's manager of media relations. "(It) is clear evidence that the global community is recognizing and endorsing CAMC's systems of excellence."

Even with the best apparent product on the market, CAMC is still trying hard to help one of its biggest stakeholders gain momentum. Getting more trainees through technical schools may be the key to health in Canada's industry.

Thirty-eight CAMC curricula are taught at 18 Canadian training institutions, including BCIT, Collège Édouard-Montpetit, Southern Alberta Institute of Technology, Red Deer College and Canadore College, among others.

"Enrolment in aviation courses is low even though (employee) supply is trailing demand," says Wayne Gouveia, manager for CAMC's youth internship program, which tries to target prospective students in elementary and high schools.

"It's happened because young people think of aviation jobs as some sort of grease-monkey thing," Gouveia says. "What they don't understand is that it has the highest academic element of all trades and offers very high wages. Machinists start at about $40,000.

"We're starting to help this turn around but it should have happened earlier," he adds.

At BCIT, Canada's largest aviation trainer, school of transportation dean Lane Trotter has a waiting list of up to three years for courses. The school has doubled its student intake from 225 in 1998 to 550 today, and will almost double again within the next five years. Courses last from four to 20 months.

"There's big demand to get in, but the problem is that if the 40 to 70 per cent of current technicians who are eligible to retire actually leave, then there's no one left to train the (students). To get licensed, Transport Canada demands (new graduates) get trained by a full-time employee," Trotter says.

"Without them, these kids end up going into something like automotive and they're gone forever."

CAMC's mandate may get even broader since unionized working segments are considering joining as partners and adopting the council's training and accreditation processes.

Dick believes the in-flight crews will eventually join because the days of union-run human resources are almost over.

"Pilots may take a while because they like to do things their own way, but we're being asked to look at adding both in order to co-ordinate the entire industry," he says.

(Mike Levin can be reached at levin@businessedge.ca)