Engineers are stretched in soft skills during a newly developed Aircraft Maintenance Supervisors’ Course delivered to representatives from Papua New Guinea, Arnhem Land and Mareeba.
Story by Matt Painter
Entering the classroom, anyone can see this is no ordinary course. There are three engineers and two professional actors sitting around a table. One of the actors is in tears—real tears. Her face is red, her hands are shaking. All the course theory has suddenly become a real person.
Peter Fryatt, Manager of Technical Training for MAF International travelled to Mareeba to deliver the Aircraft Maintenance Supervisors’ Course over four days. Even though its nine modules are delivered in a classroom setting, Peter shares that “It’s a very practical course. We cover topics such as decision making, developing yourself and your team, communication, change management and safeguarding.
“I came across a company called Role Play Australia, an agency for actors. We came up with some scenarios together and it was a real privilege to get them on board for part of the course.
“There was a moment where things got really real,” says Peter, referring to a safeguarding related role play in which the actor shed tears. “The tension in the room you could almost cut with a knife. I was just thinking, ‘Wow, thank you Lord.’ What an opportunity this is. It's really awkward. It's really difficult. But there's a real engagement. This is really cool to have this opportunity and for everyone to engage and respond to it in a positive way.”
There was a moment where things got really real
Josh Flynn, Acting Maintenance Operations Supervisor in Arnhem Land, shared his thoughts on the soft-skills and scenario focussed course.
“I think it gives me some tools just to get a clearer picture about processes and staff and how we work. Just how to help people and to help staff be the best they can, to foster a better workplace that's healthy and efficient. There's a lot of practical stuff that I've learned. You can still become good at something that you’re not natural at.”
“I think this course is going to be useful for my role moving forward,” said Jade Kunika, appointee Maintenance Operations Supervisor for Papua New Guinea.
“Leadership involves identifying skills for everyone on the team, and also having respect for them, being responsible to allow them to open up, to share whatever thoughts they have, because they might have a better opinion than me. Collective thoughts can contribute to something much greater.
“I’m trying to emphasise the idea of putting God first in everything, encouraging the guys at the hangar. This is actually what we're doing. We're not doing it for something else here. We need to survive—but the most important goal, I like to say that we have one commission, and that's to just serve the Lord.”
Licenced Aviation Maintenance Engineer Francisco Aska flew down from Papua New Guinea to attend the event. He linked its outcome with the vision of MAF.
“We've learned some little tools where we can identify where our team members’ strengths are, how to help them grow and develop. There were also tools we can use to help us to maximize the outcome and effectiveness of the team. With an effective team, we have more planes going out, serving more remote people.”
