At all
the recent trade shows and forums, there have been sessions addressing
the challenge of training new people for the air cargo business in a
way that is cost effective and timely, sidestepping the outmoded practice
of traveling in order to receive proper training.
In Finland, CEO and Founding Partner at
Airport College International (airportcollege.com)
Pertti Mero thinks he has found a great solution.
The affable yet quite determined executive
insists that he has put his life and considerable record of service
as a top industry manager toward education.
Now he is out to change the way people
learn the commercial aviation arts beginning from the ground up.
“Our focus,” Pertti says,
“is always on how we can create something practical, new, and
exciting that fulfills our client’s training needs in a cost-effective
way.
“What’s more we are offering
training courses that are available worldwide online.
“Currently we have directed our
focus on Ground Handling Training.
“Today almost anyone who works in
airport ground operations must have valid training according to their
job description, including the re-current training, which takes place
in two- or three-year cycles.
“At the same time, the financial
pressure for training costs is imminent, perhaps stronger than ever
before.
“This was our starting point at
airportcollege.com when we decided to start our business two and half
years ago.”
e-Education
“airportcollege.com offers a range
of e-Learning courses with different language options.
“Our online e-learning model covers
mandatory ground handling training topics in safety and security.
“All courses comply with the regulations
of international legislations and those established by governing bodies,
such as the ICAO and IATA (ISAGO).
“As a strategic partner of IATA
we have access to the latest industry information and are able to have
an open dialogue with other members to keep us and our clients updated
from that end of the business too.
“We have designed our training courses
and cloud-based Learning Management System (LMS) to perfectly fit Ground
Handling Agents, and it has been recently audited by airlines.
“The cloud-based Learning Management
System makes it easy to deploy overnight and use as a service.
“Currently we offer 20 different
online e-Learning training courses in safety, security, and service
topics (each course length is approximately 40-90 minutes).
“airportcollege.com also custom
designs courses.
“For the global audience we localize
different language versions with text and audio,” Pertti said.
Pertti Mero gained much of his knowledge
hands on, working his way from the bottom to the top for many years
before landing at last as Finnair Vice President, Cargo Sales and Marketing,
based in Helsinki.
Like many others in air cargo today, Pertti
saw a need and decided to fill it.
“I wanted to explore new challenges,
to form something new to help the industry perform better.
“Business development and training
has always been on my agenda and forming an e-Learning company with
focus on aviation and logistics industry seemed a natural extension
of my interest.
“For the past two years we have
taken major steps forward to develop Airport College International to
become a serious e-Learning services provider in the international arena.”
Knowledge & Connections
“We have a strong team of professionals
with extensive hands-on experience with running successful businesses.
“We feel that the field of training
is an essential part of successful companies and wanted to gather together
the experiences of what we have learned during our working life,”
says Head of Technology and Quality Ari Ketola.
“To be able to share knowledge and
experience in international sales and marketing, regulatory compliance,
instructional and pedagogical design, hands-on training, management
of training organizations, e-learning technologies, and standards is
an exciting offering, and this is the package we are now offering to
our clients,” Pertti Mero told FlyingTypers.
Makes The
Case
“In many quarters all over the world
today there are millions of employees that are frequently trained and
retrained according to international and company regulations.
“When well-designed online e-learning
products are utilized as either core to training or in support of that
effort, the related cost-saving potential is huge, up to 80 percent.
“airportcollege.com research indicates
that employees who are well-trained bring a higher level of job motivation
as people simply do things better.
“The impact on productivity is immediate
and long lasting.”
Finland Model To The World
“We aim to be the global leader,”
Pertti Mero said.
“Our vision is to be the global
leader in e-learning for the aviation and logistics industry.
“We are building global coverage
to help our clients to fulfill international training requirements and
achieve massive cost savings with our e-learning solutions.
“We have signed Sales and Service
Partner Agreements for several Asian countries and have ongoing negotiation
with partners in EMEA and the Americas.”
Geoffrey
