Community-youth, Youth

Volunteering at Asia Pacific Airlines Training Symposium 2023

10 Oct 2023
Text by Student Government Association 8, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University - Asia

On 28 August 2023, 9 students from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU) Asia volunteered to take part in a closed-door discussion for the Asia Pacific Airlines Training Symposium (APATS) 2023. This discussion was for airlines and regulators to come together, gather knowledge and brainstorm solutions for implementing new training methods and technologies into the system. Our 9 student volunteers assisted by taking down minutes of the discussions between Heads of Training from different organisations.

Discussion topics include Evidence-Based Training Implementation, Selection and Ab Initio, Big Data, Sustainability, Competency Decay and more. Through the discussions, students were able to understand the thinking process and mindset of the representatives from airlines as well as the regulators. This discussion gave students insights into topics that are becoming increasingly relevant in the training aspect of airlines. They also had the opportunity to network with industry experts and get their thoughts on questions that came up during the discussions.

Following the closed door discussion, APATS 2023 had an exhibition on the 29^th and 30^th of August 2023, which allowed all participating organisations to showcase their technologies and new training methods. ERAU Asia students explored and spoke to these organisations about how their innovations can change the future of airline training. During the exhibition, industry experts participated and share their viewpoints on training-related topics in the panel discussions. Panel discussion topics include the role of AI, Virtual Reality and Extended Reality in reducing the training time for pilots, potentially through simulations to streamline progress and customisation of topics and training for each individual based of their assessments.

APATS 2023 was an eye-opener for ERAU Asia students and a signal on what the focus is going to be for Airline Training in future. We were exposed to another aspect of aviation that was previously unexplored and took away many learning points in this special experience.