I was happy to speak with my former colleague and friend. She is from the first line of contact with future aviation professionals – Prof. Marina Efthymiou. Marina is a Professor of Aviation Management at Dublin City University (DCU) Business School and an author of numerous articles in Aviation academic journals and the editor of the book “Air Traffic Management. Principles, Performance, Markets”. With extensive experience in teaching students at both university and executive training programmes, she brings valuable insights into the evolving landscape of aviation education. In this interview we dive into the topic of aviation professionals and the skills they need to succeed in the aviation industry.
What are the expectations of your students regarding their future work?
Aviation Management at DCU is not a general course that students happen to find themselves in – it’s a course they actively choose. They all have something in common here, and it’s their passion for aviation.
In terms of their expectations, they look forward to working on interesting projects and delivering meaningful contributions. Moreover, they look for leaders, who inspire them and have an innovative mindset. What is important is that they want to work with leaders to whom they can relate.
They value working in multicultural teams, workplaces with progressive thinking, work cultures that foster inclusivity. The student population itself, especially here in Ireland, is quite international. We have students coming here from Europe and all over the world. That in itself reflects how global and interconnected the aviation industry has become.
What factors do the students take into account as the most important regarding their future workplace?
A study we conducted on the future of work in aviation highlighted some key trends. One of the biggest takeaways was that workplaces will need to be flexible and adaptable to employees’ personal circumstances. This includes offering hybrid and remote work options, which students increasingly see as essential.
The students value clarity about their career path. This means, when a young professional joins a company as a junior staff member, they want to know that there are opportunities for them to progress within the company, that there are structured pathways for continuous learning and professional growth. These pathways help them to develop their skills, competencies and network.
What also proves to have a positive impact to young people’s interests in aviation jobs, is raising awareness about the available positions and educating them about what these positions mean – what kind of tasks are to be performed and what could be the progression of their career paths.
How to familiarise students with the real industry world?
Here, at DCU we offer industry placements where the students get the opportunity to work in companies, gain hands-on experience and have the possibility to contribute to real-life projects. From there they can find out if a given role or a company is where they would picture themselves in the future, or if they would rather amend their professional trajectory. That is a fantastic possibility, that gives our students a real feel of how it is working on a vision and they also gain a lot of practical insights. When they come back to the University from a placement, I observed, they come back more confident, with a stronger sense of direction. It’s as if they stand taller, having gained both experience and self-assurance. The industry benefits as well, it gets to engage with motivated, well-educated future professionals and identify potential talent early on. It’s a win-win situation for both students and employers.
As programme lead do you see a need of adapting the curriculum to fit the future aviation workforce, i.e. introducing new modules, developing certain types of skills?
The aviation and ATM industries are changing quite dynamically, so here at DCU we have an Industry Advisory Board in place. It is a body advising us on the curriculum on a yearly basis. The Board consists of the Ireland transport authorities, international aviation industry partners and course alumni. They share with our university the challenges that they’re facing, what are the current pressing topics, what kind of competences and skills are useful in the workplaces. On this basis the University presents updates to the curriculum, and the Board reviews, comments and validates them.
Additionally, the feedback that we are getting is that the industry values emotional intelligence, communication and interpersonal skills. And people who are generally aware of what’s going on in the aviation and ATM World, and about the different challenges the industry is facing. Our teaching approach directly addresses these needs, ensuring that students graduate with the technical expertise and soft skills required to excel in their careers.
At DCU, we don’t just prepare students for jobs, we equip them for leadership in a constantly evolving industry.
What have you found to be the best ways for students to learn?
One should not underestimate the importance of learning how to learn. This means that when a person encounters something that is unknown, they know how to learn a new skill to handle the situation. As a result, whatever task you present to them, they are ready to take up the challenge. Another thing is that we want our students to have a wide spectrum of understanding of the industry as a system rather than an isolated topic.
Here at DCU, we use a lot of case studies, coming from real life. We do simulations, because that gives students learning through experience. We also like to use challenge-based learning. This means students are presented with a challenge and they develop a solution through collaboration in teams. This approach allows them to develop their communication and interpersonal skills. This kind of learning is fun and the skills learned through them will stay with them after they graduate.
