Shaping the Future of Aviation Skills: Aviation Australia on MEA Training Package Updates

20 May 2026

Dear Valued Partner,

As your trusted partner for aircraft maintenance training, I am writing to inform you that the Manufacturing Industry Skills Alliance (MISA), as the Jobs and Skills Council (JSC) responsible for the manufacturing and engineering sectors, has now released the draft public consultation package for proposed changes to the MEA Training Package as part of the broader alignment work between vocational training pathways and CASA Part 66 licensing requirements.

These proposed changes will directly influence how future Aircraft Maintenance Engineers (AMEs) and Licensed Aircraft Maintenance Engineers (LAMEs) are trained, assessed and progressed toward licensing outcomes across Australia.

Aviation Australia supports the intent of the MISA review and acknowledges the positive work undertaken. Unfortunately, we believe the proposed revisions do not adequately address the aviation industries needs as a whole.

Aviation Australia’s position

Aviation Australia’s position is that future training reforms must be driven by the operational and workforce needs of the aviation industry as a whole. This includes supporting pathways for:

Unlicensed Aircraft Maintenance Engineers (AMEs),
Licensed Aircraft Maintenance Engineers (LAMEs) progressing through modular licensing pathways, and
LAMEs progressing through full Part 66 licensing pathways.

Importantly, these pathways must support the full aviation ecosystem, including:

General Aviation,
Defence Aviation,
Regional Aviation, and
Commercial Airline operations.

Aviation Australia’s role in this consultation is to represent and advocate for practical workforce outcomes across industry, from smaller General Aviation operators through to larger commercial and airline environments.

Our concern is that the current proposed revisions remain heavily focused on administrative alignment and mapping activity, rather than addressing the broader structural barriers that continue to limit workforce accessibility and practical achievability across industry.

The core structural issue

While the current review improves mapping between the MEA Training Package and CASA Part 66 knowledge modules, it does not sufficiently resolve one of the most significant structural barriers currently faced by industry.

Many existing MEA Units of Competency continue to:

bundle multiple ATA systems into single units,
assume exposure to complex aircraft systems, and
rely on qualification packaging structures that are difficult to achieve in many real workplace environments.

This particularly impacts:

General Aviation,
light aircraft operators,
regional maintenance providers, and
smaller maintenance organisations.

For many apprentices, the issue is not capability, motivation or opportunity.

The issue is that the current training package often assumes access to aircraft systems that simply do not exist within their operational environment.

In this context, qualification pathways can become barriers rather than enablers.

Why this matters for industry

The original intent of CASA’s modular licensing framework was to create a more flexible and achievable pathway to licensing, particularly for Aircraft Maintenance Engineers working within General Aviation and smaller maintenance environments.

From a practical workforce and training perspective, this means apprentices should be able to achieve meaningful licence outcomes on aircraft where systems are limited in complexity and scope in accordance with CASA regulations.

However, many current units continue to require evidence across systems that may not exist on the aircraft being maintained. As a result, the proposed changes may improve administrative alignment while still leaving many of the underlying operational barriers unresolved and locking sectors of the industry out.

Workforce implications

If these structural barriers remain unresolved:

Apprentices may continue experiencing delayed qualification and licensing outcomes.
Employers may continue struggling to provide access to required workplace evidence.
Smaller operators may become less willing or able to employ apprentices.
Workforce shortages may deepen.
The intended flexibility of modular licensing may not be fully realised.

This creates risk not only for General Aviation, but for the broader aviation workforce pipeline across Australia.

Aviation Australia believes this consultation represents an important opportunity to ensure the national training system supports scalable and nationally aligned workforce outcomes across the entire aviation sector.

Aviation Australia’s recommendation to industry

Aviation Australia encourages industry stakeholders to take a balanced approach when responding to the consultation. We encourage industry to:

Support the demand for improvements in mapping transparency.
Support the demand for improved guidance material.
Support the requirements for progressive modular skillsets.
Support the demand for improved licensing pathway.

Conclusion

Aviation Australia’s position is not that reform should stop, rather that this consultation represents an important opportunity to ensure reform delivers practical, scalable and sustainable workforce outcomes across the aviation industry.

We encourage all industry stakeholders to actively participate in the consultation process and provide practical, operationally focused feedback based on the realities of their workplace environments and workforce needs.

The success of this reform should ultimately be measured not by how effectively qualifications are mapped on paper, but by whether the system produces more achievable pathways, stronger workforce participation and a capable and sustainable aviation maintenance workforce for the future.

Consultation

Please find at this link the Aviation Australia Industry Guidance for MISA Consultation document. The consultation closes on 29 May 2026. For further information refer to the MISA Consultation page found here.

Yours sincerely,

Glenn Signature