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Airbus is Europe's number one in aircraft construction and also plays a major role in the international context. Competition is fierce, resulting in intensive " side-looking". Airbus intends to stay successful, continue to grow and expand its production of short- and medium-range aircraft. Consequently, more employees must be recruited and trained in the respective aircraft types. This is my task, as I coordinate the training of the Airbus colleagues in Manufacturing.
Valeska Szalla
Learning Deployment Parter
I have been working via ARTS in personnel development at Airbus Operations in Hamburg Finkenwerder since 2017. However, my roots are far away from large enterprises. I started my career 15 years ago in a small language institute in Hamburg. I organised Latin courses for students there. Today I organise up to 150 different courses for a four-figure number of Airbus employees. Continuous improvement - that pushes me forward in my daily work. I don't want to be satisfied with a status quo. I not only want to constantly improve myself, but also to motivate the people around me to achieve top performance. This is also the demand of our customers, which is exactly why I enjoy my work at Airbus so much.
Airbus benefits from the use of external staff, like me, because we add a fresh breeze, new ideas and a clear view with the different professional experiences that each of us has gained over time.
The Airbus Training Center has two European locations. In Toulouse mainly pilots are trained. In Hamburg, my first job was to organize the technical training for airline maintenance technicians, especially in the A320 to A380 range, at the various airport bases. Maintenance technicians check the aircraft after each landing and ensure flight safety. I shared their responsibility, because I was in charge of organizing the practical training sessions, which also had to take place at night on the aircraft. This was a very interesting task, as I was able to demonstrate my coordination skills and organisational talent. After about two years the assignment at the Airbus Training Center ended, but I did not leave ARTS. Now I am working in the HR department as a Learning Deployment Partner here at Airbus Operations.
Airbus benefits from the use of external staff, like me, because we add a fresh breeze, new ideas and a clear view with the different professional experiences that each of us has gained over time.
In my current position I still organise training courses, but their target group has changed. Instead of employees of Airbus customers, I am now training the internal Airbus employees. These trainings are in the area of manufacturing, i.e. all manual trainings. This includes structural mechanics, but also surface sealing. However, the Industrial Academy is responsible for the content of the training courses. This is where the experts for the training content are located. We also work closely with the interfaces in the respective areas, the so-called Plant Competence Managers.
In Manufacturing I am responsible for collecting, bundling and coordinating the training needs of all departments and making sure that they are rolled out later. We have 150 possible courses in our portfolio and train a four-figure number of employees. I don't just deal with the pure training organization, but also prepare the corresponding reports. The biggest challenge here is usually timing. After all, not all participants are always available on the given date. That makes it exciting and challenging, because safety and quality are top priority at Airbus. In addition to the daily organisation of the training courses, we are currently also dealing with relevant questions regarding process optimisation and, above all, streamlining. True to the motto better - faster - ahead - I want to identify and analyse needs quickly. What needs to be anticipated and how can a short-term resource procurement be carried out for spontaneously arising training needs? In a global corporation like Airbus, the training organization is quite complex and the need for process optimization is almost always present. Several small working groups have been formed for this purpose, because micromanagement is a thing of the past at Airbus. Today, the management style is based on trust and is largely based on self-organization.
The team in the Manufacturing division, in which I am working, consists of three colleagues. In addition, a colleague who is responsible for quality assurance courses is based in Bremen. We also have other colleagues in Toulouse with whom we work. The Learning Deployment Team is structured like a matrix that enables close cooperation. The extended circle is the Community of Practice, in which we therefore exchange information primarily in English.
Every 1.4 seconds an Airbus takes off or lands somewhere in the world. Hardly any of the competitor's products can keep up with the Airbus product range. Investments in the A320 aircraft type are to be further expanded in the coming years and production rates increased. The relevance of training and education is particularly evident here. Each and every one of the approximately 130,000 employees worldwide must perform outstanding work in order to keep Airbus on the road to long-term success. The training courses I organize also make a significant contribution to this, because safety and security are more important in the aerospace industry than in any other industry. This motivates me to give my best every day.
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