In August over 400 delegates gathered at Gallagher Estate in Midrand to address the development of women in aviation.

IN RECOGNITION of the work the husband and wife team of Clinton and Michelle Carroll are doing in advancing women in aviation, Aeronautical Aviation’s CEO Clinton Caroll was the only male speaker at the CAA’s women’s National Gender Summit.

Clinton was invited to address the summit as he had earlier presented to the AERO SA Expo regarding the apprenticeship programme his company runs in-house. Aeronautical Aviation’s programme focusses on how aviation is facing a shortage of youngsters coming into the avionics industry as avionics technicians. Clinton – and indeed many others – believe that the problem is that many young people see aviation as only for pilots.

A particularly popular takeaway comment that resonated with the audience was when Clinton asked; “These days men can carry handbags – so why can’t women carry toolboxes?”

The CAA was particularly impressed that Aeronautical Aviation is working to support and build the industry on a technical level. Under the heading of “Building A New Generation of Aviation Professionals” Clinton spoke on: How the Covid pandemic has changed the way we work and how it has affected our work/life balance.

He addressed the all-important question of how we can provide cost effective training programmes to build an aviation workforce locally and how global aviation industry leaders can support Africa’s education and training requirements. Finally, he dealt with the question of how do we gear ourselves to meet the demands of new developments in aviation?

Clinton Carroll of Aeronautical Aviation at the CAA’s Gender Summit.