The Gaps in the Vocational Education and Training Curricula to Address Aeronautical Industry Needs

Abstract

Aeronautic Industry has a critical responsibility in facilitating European economic growth and social inclusion providing revenues to otherwise isolated regions and allowing people to enlarge their horizons. According to the EU, currently aeronautics and air transport are key drivers of European cohesion and competitiveness, representing 220 billions of Euros and providing 4,5 million of jobs in Europe, a figure that should double by 2020. Future developments in the sector, together with greater intra-European mobility of workers and population aging brings a greater need for new skills in the work force together with an urgency for a larger number of professionals. Therefore, to achieve the desirable sustained growth the EU needs to invest in high quality VET (Vocational Education and Training) in order to be able to supply the AI (Aeronautic Industry) with qualified workers. VET stands for education and training which aims to equip people with knowledge, know-how, skills and/or competences required in particular occupations or more broadly on the labour market. This paper presents the initial results of an "initiative" supported by the European Commission called AIRVET. Its main objective is to design, develop, evaluate and disseminate adapted/new AI curricula and VET courses in the specific fields of Maintenance and Information and Communications Technologies (ICT). The methodology followed included an analysis of a desk study, questionnaires completed by over five hundred people, focus group meetings held in four countries and individual interviews performed in the six partner countries. The project triangulates the results to establish clear areas that would benefit from the development of vocational training. Three subject areas were identified to be explored in terms of developing/adapting training curricula and developing multimedia training materials: maintenance, ground operations and human factors.

A study of Chinese technical and vocational college teachers' adoption and gratification in new technologies

“…Not surprisingly, there is a growing demand for incorporating ICT in mainstream teaching in technical and vocational education (Bliuc, Casey, Bachfischer, Goodyear & Ellis, 2012; Khan, 2015). Due to the rapid changes in digital technologies, there are now many skills gaps confronting many organizations, especially technical and vocational colleges (Arnaldo & Comendador, 2017), which is the focus of this research.…”