In an industry where safety is essential above all else, the importance of well-trained ground handling personnel is crucial.
Proper training reduces the risk of injuries and damage to the expensive assets on the ramp. But challenges surrounding training still exist.
In this month’s Cover Story and Ground Service Providers feature, the labor challenges facing the industry are highlighted. Skilled employees are becoming difficult to find and expectations from the workforce are shifting.
As the industry continues its recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, training is taking on an increasingly important role.
Of course, many organizations were forced to reduce their staffing levels as passenger flight volumes bottomed out. As a result ground handling proficiency has been impacted as experienced members of the workforce left to pursue other opportunities. Some may not return to the ground handling industry. Others may not have worked consistently during the pandemic and require recertification.
But as passenger traffic increases, retaining skilled and experienced ground handlers is even more important.
The industry needs to attract new talent to augment the current workforce. Evaluating training methods can assist with this need.
Online/remote solutions can make training materials more accessible and technology enabled training methods, such as virtual reality, can help ground service providers enhance training by streamlining operations and improving capabilities. Innovative training tools can be more engaging, which can result in better retention of safety related knowledge.
Training is a topic in need of ongoing discussion, and Ground Support Worldwide will continue to cover it from all angles. Recently, at AviationPros.com we launched a Source eBook devoted to the topic. This collection of articles, blogs, podcasts and other resources is designed to keep you informed on this vital topic and will be updated regularly with new materials.
We can also learn from one another. I welcome you to share your own experiences with training. How has your operation succeeded in training? In what ways can the industry’s training methods improve?
Reach out to me at [email protected].
