Aerospace: a sector badly in need of love

Photo Francis Halin
Sylvain Lamber
Director general of the national School of aerodynamics

Francis Halin

Saturday, 10 march, 2018 00:00

UPDATE
Saturday, 10 march, 2018 00:00

Look at this article

The number 1 of the national School of aviation was increasingly difficult to recruit students due to the bad press. Interview with his director-general Sylvain Lambert.

• Read also: Avoid the risks caused by the shortage

What is the image that people perceive of aviation ?

Often, the perception is very focused on what we see in the news, including bad news. We think Bombardier or Aveos. Even if it’s been many years, it has struck the collective imagination. […] It is necessary to reassure parents about the fact that there are employment. And there are jobs that will stay. As this is a cyclical industry, this is often a concern for people who want to go in this area.

Is it easy to attract students to your school ?

No, this is not easy. It has a capacity of 1300 students in the young people, but it has just 900 students at this time. God knows we made a lot of effort to go to the secondary schools. We made the tour of the regions. You have people full-time on recruiting. It does not seem easy to attract young people. This is not so much the young as the parents. There is a question of perception of the industry. […] People have a hard time believing that the industry is going well.

Is it worse today than before ?

We can not say that there is a dramatic decrease. It is sure that it is a small continuing decrease of a few percentage points in the past five years. It goes down quietly. In 2001, there has been a dramatic decrease. It was increased from 1200 to 500 in a few months, after the attacks of September 11. Since then, it’s more of a gloom. We want to overturn the balance.

Where do your students come from ?

The vast majority of Quebecers. There are about 10 % who come from abroad. It comes mostly from Montreal and Longueuil. The people in the regions do not come much to study here. We would like to open the machine. In Sept-Îles, there are aviation companies who are in need of maintenance technicians. In Three Rivers, there is a big maintenance company. We do not understand that there are not more of these areas.

What is the Quebec risk of losing because of this lack of students ?

This could be dramatic, in the worst case scenario, if we do not form enough, it is the risk of relocation. It is the risk of say, these good jobs-then we will offer them to people abroad because here there is not the skilled labour.