Course plan for Basics of Passenger Services
Pekkarinen, Aku; Vitikainen, Iina (2020)
Pekkarinen, Aku
Vitikainen, Iina
2020
All rights reserved. This publication is copyrighted. You may download, display and print it for Your own personal use. Commercial use is prohibited.
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-202005118403
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-202005118403
Tiivistelmä
Prior to the outbreak of Covid-19, the airline industry was growing at a high pace, and the industry has been struggling to find enough talented and motivated long-term employees to work in the field. It is likely that the same challenge still needs to be tackled once the industry gets back on its feet. Ground handling, a crucial part of the aviation industry, also struggles with this problem. There is a high need to find more motivated and skilled people to work especially in the passenger service sector, where the employees assist passengers throughout their journey at an airport: all the way from check-in to boarding and finally in arrival services upon the arrival. The strict rules and regulations of the industry, as well as demanding customer encounters in a hectic terminal atmosphere, demand these passenger service employees to have a great set of skills, competencies and qualifications. To decrease the impact of the talent gap, cooperation between educational institutions and the industry stakeholders plays a key role. That´s why a course plan for a course called Basics of Passenger services was created for Haaga-Helia University of Applied Sciences. The aim of the course is to provide bachelor students with the basic knowledge in passenger services to make it easier for them to start their internships or work life in airport environment, for example in ground handling companies. As departure control systems are widely used in passenger service units when processing airline passenger data, one of the most popular departure control systems, Amadeus Altéa, was selected to be taught on this course.
In spring 2020, representatives of the three biggest ground handling companies at Helsinki airport were interviewed and six European universities were benchmarked. Interviews and benchmarking results showed that ground handling companies in Helsinki would appreciate if new employees would know basic skills required for the role already before starting in their company, but for students, so future employees, to learn Altéa or passenger service skills in universities is not so much available.
Based on the results from benchmarking and interviews, literature reviewed as well as the industry expertise of the thesis authors, the course content, together with the implementation plan, was created in Moodle.
In spring 2020, representatives of the three biggest ground handling companies at Helsinki airport were interviewed and six European universities were benchmarked. Interviews and benchmarking results showed that ground handling companies in Helsinki would appreciate if new employees would know basic skills required for the role already before starting in their company, but for students, so future employees, to learn Altéa or passenger service skills in universities is not so much available.
Based on the results from benchmarking and interviews, literature reviewed as well as the industry expertise of the thesis authors, the course content, together with the implementation plan, was created in Moodle.