This article answers the following:
1. What is the scope of the field of aviation?
2. What opportunities can be created for aviation graduates in Pakistan?
3. How can our graduates compete with international markets?
1. What is the Scope of this Field?
Following job prospects for an aviation graduate are available in local and international markets.- Jobs in airline operations at the airport (e.g., passenger handling, baggage handling and cargo handling, aircraft maintenance) and behind the scene (e.g., crew planning, customer care and safety) are good opportunities for these graduates.
- Ground handling companies managing airport operations of various local and international airlines is a good option for a fresh graduate to get industry experience. Based on the capacity of the employee, these companies also facilitate him/her to get license for load controlling.
- Other than this, if they obtain a license, they may get into flight operations and maintenance.
- Moreover, after passing a designated NTS exam, they may get into air traffic controlling.
- Travel and tourism related companies are another sector where these graduates may be placed.
- Foreign airlines such as Qatar Airways, Emirates, Fly Dubai and Air Arabia are some of the international employers for fresh graduates of aviation related degree programs.
- The scope of this field is no doubt narrow. It is challenging too. So, the student should only join this field if he/she has passion, determination and is consistent towards his/her career in aviation industry.
2. What opportunities can be created for aviation graduates in Pakistan?
We need a strong bridge between aviation industry and academia in the matters of employment and research.- In this regard, airlines, ground handling companies and Airport Security Force (ASF) should acknowledge these graduates by putting the degree title such as BS Aviation Management (BS AM) as one of the qualifications for their entry level jobs. As a precedent, Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority (PCAA) is already doing it.
- Industry can fund social research and applied projects of students and offer jobs for those students whose projects offer best solutions for industry problems.
- A rather ambitious approach can be to partially follow the model of armed forces. For obvious reasons, the employment rate of their graduates is 100 percent. Likewise, Higher Education Commission (HEC) can suggest or enforce universities to set up a related business enterprise before starting a new degree program to incorporate at least 40 percent of their graduates in these companies. This approach favors the self-sustainability and as a precedent, medical colleges are already doing it (unintentionally) by preferring their own graduates for a house job or a full-time job.
3. How can our graduates compete with international markets?
To compete in international market, we need to work on two fronts:- First, we need to enhance the quality of education of aviation related degree programs according to international standards to earn and sustain trust from the international employers. For this purpose, getting international accreditations for our aviation related degree programs can be one solution. In this regard, Aviation Accreditation Board International (AABI) under Council of Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) for management and technical degree programs, PEC under Washington Accord for engineering related programs and National Technology Council (NTC) under Sydney Accord can prove to be good options. Few of the universities are already working for these accreditations.
- Secondly, government initiative for a bilateral agreement with major airlines (e.g., Emirates, Qatar Airways, Saudi Airlines) and their subsidiary companies (e.g., Emirates Engineering, DNATA and Qatar Airport Services) in gulf region can bring benefit for aviation graduates. Universities that are offering aviation related degree programs can be directed by HEC to incorporate the modern software tools that these companies used. But these tools are expensive and universities may need to collaborate with these companies to get access to these software packages. HEC or the government may facilitate this collaboration.
