Article Posted on : - Aug 03, 2017

NEW DELHI (PTI): Air India's engineering wing and aerospace major Boeing have jointly launched an apprenticeship programme for aircraft maintenance engineers (AMEs).

The first class will commence in November at the Mumbai facility of Air India Engineering Service Limited (AIESL).

Students passing out from the DGCA-approved AME institutes will be eligible to apply for the one year programme and will have to appear for an entrance examination.

The key objective of the initiative is to improve employability of AMEs and address the huge gap between the lack of skilled workforce and their demand.

Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha said at the launch event that "if this effort is successful we will be able to extend it to training of pilots and other sectors as well".

IMaCS Comprehensive Skill Gap Report submitted to the ministry of civil aviation has highlighted that 72,900 technicians and AMEs will be required by the industry by 2035.

As per DGCA data, in the past five years there were 3,644 AMEs with basic licenses and only 159 AMEs who were licensed for specific types of aircraft.

In order to address this, the government is planning to take a slew of measures which include improving standards for recognition of AME-training institutes and a tie-up between these institutes and Rajiv Gandhi National Aviation University to provide graduate degrees to these engineers, according to a government statement.

An interactive portal for registration, tracking, monitoring, and disseminating information is also on the cards.