In 1996/7, the UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) commissioned a review of airworthiness and quality assurance in the UK aircraft maintenance sector. The findings and recommendations were published as CAA Paper 970111. The review panel was chaired by Professor Roger Wootton, Dean of Engineering at the City University, London. His report included a number of issues concerning the training of aircraft maintenance engineers, including Licensed Aircraft Maintenance Engineers (LAMEs).
Whilst European Joint Aviation Requirements (JARs) specify the requirements for experience and knowledge and describe what must be included in “basic” and “aircraft type” training, there is no standard for the personal qualities that LAMEs should possess to make them effective in their role.
A research project carried out by the UK Aviation Training Association in 2000 has established such a standard in the form of a “competency framework”. This has been validated by LAMEs and industry professionals who have an interest in the competency of LAMEs.
Development of the framework into a web-based personal feedback system is currently being investigated.
This paper describes the research project, the competency framework and its academic validity.