Who's Training the Next Generation? WiAT Workshop Tackles Aviation's Talent Pipeline Challenge

Aviation training departments face a peculiar problem. The intake of new pilots and aviation professionals is changing rapidly, but the people doing the training often aren't. If you're still recruiting and retaining instructors the same way you did a decade ago, you're probably missing something important.

On Thursday 6th November at EATS 2025, the Women in Aviation Training (WiAT) workshop will tackle exactly this challenge. Running from 13:00 to 14:00 across all conference streams, the session brings together three researchers from the University of the West of England who've conducted one of the most significant studies on aviation trainers: Captain Dr Marnie Munns, Professor Susan Durbin, and Dr Tinkuma Edafioghor.

The roundtable format means this won't be death by PowerPoint. Instead, participants will work through practical questions that most training departments struggle with daily. What motivations and qualities should you actually be looking for in future trainers? How do you make the training role attractive to a more inclusive workforce? And perhaps most critically, as your intake changes, has your training department kept pace?

The research underpinning the workshop provides rare insight into what actually works when building training pipelines. Each participant will receive a copy of the research report authored by Durbin, Munns, Warren and Edwards (2022), giving them evidence-based frameworks they can take back to their organisations.

"Whether you are established or just starting out in the industry, this workshop will help you to consider how you can have an impact on the training pipeline of the next generation," EATS Conference Chair Jacques Drappier said. "The aviation industry has spent years talking about diversity and inclusion without always translating that into practical changes in how training departments operate."

The session addresses both attraction and retention, recognising that getting talented trainers through the door means nothing if they don't stay. For organisations wondering why they're struggling to build robust training teams, the workshop offers a chance to examine their approach alongside peers facing similar challenges.

This is the kind of conversation that works better around a table than from a stage. The roundtable format encourages honest discussion about what's working, what isn't, and what needs to change. No additional registration is required beyond standard EATS conference attendance, making it accessible to anyone already committed to the event.

The aviation training pipeline doesn't fix itself. Someone has to do the work of making it more effective and inclusive, and that starts with understanding what draws good trainers to the role and keeps them there.