My career
can’t take off
$140,000
spent on pilot’s licence but I can’t land a job with local carriers
Letter
from James Tan
I
AM a cadet pilot who has graduated from the flying college which trains all of
Singapore Airline’s pilots, be it for the main fleet, cargo division, or
SilkAir. I belong to a group of about 20 Singaporeans who were willing to pay
for the training course at the Singapore Flying College (a subsidiary of SIA).
This
training course cost me about $140,000 to complete.
Even
though no promise of a job was made, I was still willing to go through the
course hoping for at least an interview for consideration for an SIA job.
But the
carrier seems to prefer to take in foreign nationals (including some from
Malaysia, India and Hong Kong) over the current crop of local Singaporeans, who
have coughed up a large amount of cash and have graduated with a Commercial
Pilot Licence – only to be bypassed by this group of foreign nationals SIA has
hired with zero hours of flying experience, and provided with training from
scratch.
We
Singaporeans are being overlooked by SIA without so much as an interview. Most
of us have to look to the low-cost carriers like Jetstar and Tiger for jobs, as
these are the only airlines based out of Singapore that can take in pilots like
us with few hours of flying time.
However,
Jetstar has a policy of taking in retired air force pilots, which means Tiger
remains our only hope of employment.
Setting
our sights on jobs with overseas airlines is proving to be a major hurdle. I
have sent in more than 200 applications to airlines all over the world but I’m
usually rejected because I am a low-hour pilot or because the aviation
authority in that country has a job protection clause in place for their pilots
from their own nations. For example, Malaysian and Indonesian carriers only
allow low-hours pilots provided they are citizens of those countries.
This
means the majority of the Singaporean pilots who have paid for their own
training are hung out to dry, since we have to vie for limited places with the
foreigners for cadet pilot positions, and we are not very attractive to
airlines outside Singapore due to our low hours or the jobs policies put in
place by other countries’ aviation authorities.
So, why
does our national carrier prefer to take in foreign cadet pilots with zero
hours of flying time over their own local pilots, who have paid their dues in
the local pilot training school?
Aspiring
pilots in Singapore who want to pay their own way through their training should
think twice. Career opportunities are very limited and the cost of training is
extremely high. Could SIA comment on why local pilots who were trained at their
subsidiary training school aren’t given so much as a job interview?
Article taken from Transitioning.org
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