African aviation authorities have admitted to a serious shortage of qualified personnel amid projections that the world would need over a million pilots and maintenance staff in the next 20 years.
Also, a study by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), East & Southern African Office (ESAF), has revealed that Africa needs to train about 1 500 aviation operators, 600 aircraft maintenance personnel and 4 000 airport operators urgently.
The report said that 67% of aviation training centres in Africa had less than 10 instructors, while only four institutions had a staff compliment of over 40 instructors.
The data was collected from 75 respondents in 37 of the 54 countries on the continent, while more countries were yet to respond.
This came out of a three-day Pan-African Civil Aviation Training Conference, which started in Cape Town on Wednesday morning.
To counter the problem, the conference delegates sought to harmonise training standards across the continent.
They also wanted to come up with an Association of Training Organizations, Centres of Excellence and a Training Advisory Board, among other institutions of mutual interest.
The delegates also sought to adopt criteria on how to recognise various qualifications, such as diplomas or degrees, obtained in different countries.