A new committee launched this year by ASTM International, one of the world´s largest standards development organizations and called Committee F46 on Aerospace Personnel said it aims to create consensus-driven standards that will help workers gain skills that adapt to new technologies and other advancements.
The group also hopes that their efforts will strengthen the pipeline of workers due to the industry´s aging workforce and the growing demand for air travel.
Boeing (NYSE: BA), for example, recently announced that over the next 20 years, global aviation will add 38,000 planes requiring 600,000 more technicians.
The committee consists of a cross-section of industry, including manufacturers, suppliers, nonprofits, training institutes, governments and others. They are particularly interested in addressing the need for high-skilled workers in areas such as aircraft assembly, avionics, IT systems, repair stations and more.
The group´s chairman, Sam Haycraft, a technician who founded jet-maintenance company West Star Aviation, says, “Training standards need to reflect what technology is today, not what it was 40 or 50 years ago.”
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