TRAINING OF AVIATION PERSONNEL FOR THE NEEDS OF THE AIR FORCE AND THE RELATED FUTURE CHALLENGES

Abstract

Higher military education is nowadays undergoing numerous changes due to the “Concept of the development of higher military education in 2017-2026” adopted in 2016. The following article looks at the planned modifications in the context of training aviation personnel for the needs of the Air Force. The “Training military pilots” section discusses the process of training candidates to be military pilots, the main problems related to it as well as the nature of the system of training and educating the cadets of the Polish Air Force University. The considerations in the next section of the article concern the selection of candidates for military pilots. The recruitment, consisting of several stages, aims to efficiently identify the best candidates for service in aviation. The screening training, the aim of which is to check the predispositions of candidates for serving as pilots, is a novelty in this process. The chapter “Selection” looks at the solutions applied so far in the School of Eaglets, and also analyses the benefits of the new recruitment method. The final sections of the article concern the profile of the graduates of the Polish Air Force University, their target skills and the development plans of the University in the face of the challenges posed.