CASA this week opened for consultation a proposal to recognise aviation engineer qualifications issued overseas.
Under the proposal, once CASA has assessed and formally recognised a foreign state, a licence holder from that country can apply to have CASA recognise their qualifications for an equivalent CASR Part 66 aircraft maintenance engineer licence.
The move is intended to address a critical shortage of maintenance engineers in Australia, and initially will cover engineers from three countries only: United Kingdom, Singapore and the USA.
"We have developed a framework that we will use to assess a foreign State to provide a basis for recognition of the State for Part 66 of CASR," a CASA statement says.
"It is intended to ensure that Australia’s safety standard for maintenance personnel licensing is maintained while increasing the availability of Part 66 licenced aircraft maintenance engineers for Australian employers.
"Using the framework, we will assess a foreign State and if successful, the State will be specified as a recognised State in the Part 66 MOS. This will allow us to grant a Part 66 aircraft maintenance engineer licence in recognition of a foreign licence issued by a recognised State more quickly and efficiently than the current arrangements.
"Licence holders from other, non-recognised States will still be able to obtain Australian licences via the current Part 147 maintenance training organisation assessment arrangements."
The proposal also includes necessary amendments to the Part 66 Manual of Standards (MOS) to add the three states already assessed. Additional countries will be added to the MOS as the program progresses.
In the 2024 aviation white paper, the ALP government noted that new engineer licence had dropped from over 400 in 2014-15 to 130 for 2022-23, and that the decline co-incided with the transition from CAR 31 to CASR Part 66.
The government committed CASA to streamlining the process of converting engineer licences issued overseas to CASR Part 66.
More information and feedback details are on the CASA Consultation Hub.