Originally Posted by
Aviator2019
Looking to find out if anyone out there has had issues with the training procedures at SkyWest.
We had 7 hirees (thus far) resign and/or fail the November class. It was very clear that the company didn’t care to put forth any effort to assist those who were having difficulties, and left much to be handled by whichever students were willing to head-up study groups (in our class’ case, there were none). The company loves to pledge assistance, but the “help” they offered us was the advice “You either get it, or you get out.”
To all potential people looking to sign on with SKW, there are some stringent rules that the company adheres to, and will absolutely not deviate from:
“Three strikes - you’re out” policy, even if you are struggling and have asked for help. (in my case, my sim partner resigned, and I was not given a replacement to work with)
SKW considers “failure” to be anything below 80% (even on internal tests and exams), and accumulating 3 failures throughout the training program (even on small company tests) results in a termination on the pilot’s PRIA report.
Struggling during FTD / Sim means that they will intentionally limit the amount of help they will offer. You’re allotted exactly 10 hours of extra instruction, and to exceed this will result in a termination (again, on the PRIA report).
I feel very strongly after going through the SKW groundschool that the training department is run on fear. Anyone going into SKW should be aware of these policies and take a long, hard look at which airline they’re choosing. These are things I wish I would’ve known. SKW prides itself on having a very positive, caring culture for its employees, but their actions do not foster this kind of environment. Instead, they seem to pride themselves on the number of pilots who don’t make it through the program.
Hellow Aviator2019,
Let me answer your question about if anyone had issues in training, yes. We all had them, but if you don’t put the time and effort, it will show.
You are describing the wrong SkyWest, or at least it’s not what the SkyWest I know. ERJ side.
SkyWest told us that we need to study in groups, so we did that. We were also 7, and 1 of them did not pass all the exams, but he never quit. Always asked for help, he was corporate guy, cool guy but too nervous, first time on the 121 gigs. I have been to this dance before, so it was not my first time, but on other regionals, I did see people get fired in training for not performing. I thought this guy was going to be like that, I thought he was going to get fired, but he never did. SkyWest gave him a lot of opportunities more than three strikes. So, it was my first time seen that in training, I was blown away about that, could not believe that a company will help you get additional training — my respects to this company SKYWEST.
Later on, I saw other 3 guys struggling, in training. The company gave them additional help, now there now doing excellent flying everywhere in the system.
My sim partner was an eight-year FO on the CRJ; he taught me how SKYWEST does it, so we practice flows, limitations, etc. After class every day. Of course, after class and happy hour for about 3 hours or more. So, plan of not sleeping your regular 8-10hours or so, more like 4 or maybe 5, at the end you will enjoy the hard work you put into the program. When I was in the sim, I felt I was behind, but the instructor told us that we were doing just fine, ahead of the game, he stated that he could see who has been studying or not.
Not sure what are you talking about ground school training department running on fear? Are you serious? That never happened to our class; it was the other way around. It was open door policy in training.
SLC on the CRJ side uh, well, I can tell you that my sim partner mentions horror stories about the CRJ program, way back ten years ago, he stated that culture had changed so much, for the better. And we both saw the other guys struggling, and he also said that if that was ten years ago, and the guys struggling would have been fired a long time ago, so we both very surprised about what SkyWest can help you on your training, but you need to speak up.
So far SkyWest has been way better training experience than the other regionals like I said before, it was not my first dance on 121. If you need help, they will help you, if you don’t ask for it, it could be too late.
Good luck with your training.