Aviation Australia and Hawker Pacific formalise training partnership

Aviation Australia and Hawker Pacific have signed an agreement to formalise their previous Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for a specialised training program in Cairns.

The program is intended to provide advanced practical expertise to Aviation Maintenance Engineering (AME) students graduating from the Aviation Australia’s International Training Diploma program.

“The MoU was agreed to in June 2012 and has been working well for both parties so we think this is a great time to formalise the processes we have put into place,” Hawker Pacific’s chief operating officer, Doug Park said.

The agreement allows students who have been undertaking an International Diploma at the Aviation Australia campus in Brisbane to relocate to Cairns following two years of theoretical instruction, to complete an intensive 10 week program of practical experience with Hawker Pacific.

The program offers these students an opportunity to apply their newly acquired skills and knowledge to gain valuable real-world experience in a specialist aircraft maintenance facility.

Aviation Australia, as the training provider of the Cairns Aviation Skills Centre, has agreed to manage up to 20 AME trainees at a time and facilitate their placement with Hawker Pacific.

Under the MoU, a number of students have participated in trial programs.

The initial group through the program comprised 10 engineers from the Royal Oman Police (ROP) who arrived in Cairns in early August 2012.

“These AME trainees have been working for the ROP for some time and have come to Aviation Australia to gain internationally recognised qualifications,” Bill Horrocks, CEO of Aviation Australia said.

“Whilst in this program they are supervised and mentored by some of Australia’s most highly qualified and experienced licenced aircraft maintenance engineers (LAME’s).”

The Cairns Aviation Skills Centre located adjacent to the Hawker Pacific Facility is a local industry owned facility that provides all aspects of aviation training to North Queensland, Northern Territory and PNG based aviation communities.

Hawker Pacific has worked closely with Aviation Australia a key training provider of avionics and mechanical technicians, which has provided over 50 apprentices to the Cairns facility over the past eight years.

This training program between Aviation Australia and Hawker Pacific will produce students to the internationally recognised European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) standards, an accreditation the Hawker Pacific Cairns facility has held for many years.