It is vitally important to make the right choice of where to study as it will facilitate your professional development and entry into the job market. Many aeronautical companies have agreements with educational centers to attract the best students of each promotion, thus ensuring a generational replacement and protecting themselves in case of talent drain to other companies in the sector.
Aspects to take into account when choosing a study center
Before choosing a study center we should check the following aspects.
- The study center should have the possibility of dual training, i.e., while studying you can do an internship in companies. With the dual training program when you finish your studies you will have demonstrable professional experience which will help you find a job much faster.
- It is important that the Aeronautical Maintenance Training Center is bilingual in Spanish and English. In a bilingual program the student can learn all the most used terms in the aeronautical sector, as well as be able to read and interpret the maintenance tasks following the aircraft manual. Good knowledge of the English language in the aeronautical sector will be key to a successful career.
- A good Aeronautical Maintenance Training Center must have experienced teachers in the different subjects taught both practical and theoretical. Instructors must be able to present real cases that make learning much more didactic and intuitive.
- The practices to be performed in the maintenance workshops should be real cases, typical work during maintenance tasks with which the student will acquire skills in the handling and recognition of the countless tools to be used.
- The center where you study should have a good program of internships in recognized companies in the sector both within the Spanish territory or at European level.
- It is preferable that the center where you study offers you the possibility to take all the exams to acquire an Aeronautical Maintenance License. These exams will be based on the same syllabus you have studied during your learning process. It is not the same to take the exam in the center where you have studied as it is to take the exam in another center, the general syllabus will remain the same but the basis of questions is done by different instructors adding an extra difficulty.
Below, you will find a more detailed description of the above aspects.
Dual training is the possibility of studying and working at the same time, depending on the study center, it can be divided by days of the week or by semesters. The great advantage of this modality and what makes it the best possible option is that the Aeronautical sector is based on experience. Especially when you have just finished studying, in this case, you are gaining experience while studying so you will go out to the job market with an advantage over the rest of the students, it may be sacrificed and you may have less time to devote to your hobbies, girlfriend, etc, but it will be the first of many sacrifices you will have to make to succeed in your professional career.
A center with bilingual training or an advanced technical English program will provide a great advantage in the Spanish and European job market. Nowadays the English language is the adopted language in aviation, from interviews, maintenance manuals, communication with colleagues in the sector, names of the different parts and tools to use in the daily work, even your own resume is in English so it is of vital importance to study in a bilingual training center.
The center where you study must have professors with relevant experience in the aeronautical sector. The experience in the sector will make learning much easier and didactic since they will be able to explain the syllabus of studies in a more real way giving importance to the knowledge that will be used in the main tasks of aeronautical maintenance instead of reading a syllabus that has been learned in a theoretical rather than practical way. Didactic learning will lay the foundation for a successful career in the aviation industry.
In any aeronautical maintenance study center, workshop practices should be done, these practices should be routine tasks of any center specialized in aeronautical maintenance, such as simple (wire locking) braking techniques, interpretation of a maintenance manual, interpretation of electrical diagrams, how to use basic measuring instruments such as a multimeter, a bonding meter, inspection of materials for corrosion, delamination, etc. Simple techniques but involving the use of tools in which previous experience must be acquired in order to use them safely during maintenance tasks.
Company internships are equally or more important than the studies themselves, it is vital that the Study Center ensures internships directly related to aeronautical maintenance. In such internships, the student must have an advisor who can guide him/her during this period so that the student gives 100% of his/her capabilities, squeezing every hour, minute, and second while he/she can to gain as much knowledge and experience as possible. The practice advisor should guide the student so that he/she can, as much as possible, vary the maintenance tasks and observe what his/her supervisors are doing. An exhaustive control must be kept of all the tasks performed by the student whether they have been written in the basic experience book. The basic experience book will be key to obtaining the first job.
If you choose the right school and do an internship in a good company, you will already have 80% of your chances of getting a job.
