Aircraft_Maintenance_Technology_January-February_2020 - 35

additional support as industry grassroots
efforts pick up steam.
According to the latest ATEC member survey, enrollments for aviation maintenance
programs are decreasing, despite the uptick
in starting pay for newly-minted mechanics. While program awareness, instructor
salary and access to tools and equipment
are leading challenges for maintenance
programs looking to fill open classroom
seats, schools continue to cite outdated
curriculum requirements as a top inhibitor for program growth. Administrators
say revamped content will better attract
would-be mechanics with an aptitude for
hands-on careers in a rapidly evolving field.
While schools have and do provide training above and beyond what is required by
the FAA, the part 147, 1,900 hour seat-time
mandates limits how much "extra" content
a school can incorporate and remain marketable. For Associate's degree programs,
common educational standards set the
minimum number of clock hours at 1,800.
An A&P program, which oftentimes "compete" with other, more efficient occupational pathway programs, will find it difficult
to justify adding more coursework to an
already credit-heavy program. Indeed,
a school accreditor may not support an
associate's program with excessive credit
hour requirements.
A revision to part 147 has been in the FAA
rulemaking pipeline for a decade. While
relatively recent regulatory proposals (the
FAA published a notice of proposed rulemaking in 2015, followed by a supplemental proposal in 2019) would remove static
curriculum requirements altogether and
provide more flexibility for schools, industry representatives are concerned that the
agency's continued insistence on governing
educational aspects in the new rule will further dampen an already stagnant pipeline.
Under the current rule, FAA inspectors
dictate grading scales, absentee policies
and class sizes; elements already overseen
by Department of Education-approved
accreditors. New regulatory proposals
"double down" on those duplicative requirements and would require even more agency
approvals for programs looking to expand
their programs to local secondary schools.

The ATEC Annual
Conference will facilitate
its third annual
Employer Link and
Career Fair on March
30. The networking
event connects aviation
companies with school
administrators and their
students. Companies can
register to participate at
https://www.atec-amt.
org/employer-link.html.

The community-draft regulation pursues
a different, performance-based approach. It
relies heavily on a massive effort to improve
A&P mechanic certification testing. The
mechanic Airman Certification Standards
(ACS) have been in work for nearly four
years, and once published, will replace
current practical test standards (PTS), and
clearly define minimum knowledge and skill
requirements for A&P mechanics. The ACS
will be regularly reviewed and updated by
an FAA-industry committee, and provide the
framework for the written, oral and practical mechanic tests, and guidance material.
If passed, the law would utilize the ACS as
the basis for curriculum development, which
would ensure that testing and training are
always correlated and in line with industry
needs. (The FAA's proposed rule takes a different position, creating an entirely separate
training standard and review board, something industry vehemently opposes.)
Accredited institutions would rely on
the quality systems approved under the
Department of Department regulations,
without having to go through duplicative
FAA endorsements that exist under today's
regulations and in the agency's proposed
revisions. The FAA would be responsible
for ensuring schools maintain proper and
relevant materials and equipment, that
their instructors are qualified and that
training aligns with mechanic certification standards. Schools would be responsible for ensuring their programs produce a
high passage rate for the aviation mechanic
test, which the agency would use as a quality check.

ATEC is calling on industry to reach out
to congressional leaders to support the bill.
Its legislative toolkit provides congressional letter templates and talking points to
educate legislators and encourage them to
sign on as a co-sponsor of the PARTT 147
Act, which necessitates committee approval
before it goes to the House and Senate floors
for a vote.
In the meantime, industry will continue
to work with the FAA through the current
rulemaking process, with hopes that it will
produce a new part 147 by 2022 should the
congressional effort fail.
The topic will be high on the list of
issues discussed at the ATEC Annual
Conference, taking place March 29-April
1 in Fort Worth. All parties interested in
getting involved in the effort are invited
to attend.
Crystal Maguire is the
executive director of
the Aviation Technician
Education Council (ATEC) ,
managing the association
under the direction of
ATEC's board of directors. She is a
member of the Virginia State Bar and
spent 12 years at Obadal, Filler, MacLeod,
& Klein, P.L.C. where she provided
aviation maintenance regulatory
compliance to private companies and
held various positions with association
client organizations including vice
president of operations for the
Aeronautical Repair Station Association.

www.AviationPros.com

https://www.atec-amt.org/employer-link.html http://www.AviationPros.com

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