The Missed Opportunities of the Aviators

Vocational training and continuing education are increasingly viewed as an economic competitive advantage—a fact that has long been undisputed in Western industrialized nations. Switzerland’s airports not only provide tens of thousands of jobs but also train young professionals on a large scale in a wide variety of occupations.

If we include the apprenticeship positions in the so-called aviation-related sectors, the total is likely well over a thousand. Assuming that a young person’s basic vocational training typically lasts three to four years, it is easy to calculate that around 5,000 young people in Switzerland are completing training related to aviation. At the higher levels of education—from the so-called tertiary level up to universities—we can additionally expect several hundred aspiring aviation professionals. Where have our aviation policymakers gone? Fuel tariffs are one thing, but the future will be shaped by well-trained professionals. Why, then, do

do airports and their pilots not promote the outstanding training opportunities that other industries can barely dream of? Have they perhaps become so (politically) detached that they’ve forgotten the obvious? Or is “aviation policy” called that because all that comes out of their politicians’ mouths is “hot air”—albeit lukewarm?