Lydia Kes

Lydia entered the field of aviation maintenance training in March 2017, providing new direction and leadership to the largest aviation maintenance basic training college in The Netherlands until December 2022. At the college approximately 500 students are developing their future as aviation mechanics and engineers. As a training manager, Lydia was instrumental in the development of a diverse portfolio, putting ‘soft-skills’ and ‘executive functions’ in the curriculum of aviation maintenance. Lydia has also enhanced the new programme direction she introduced in 2017 by developing a fully competency-based curriculum from the foundations provided within the ICAO Competency Framework. This project is due to be delivered in the autumn of 2023.

In January 2023 Lydia transitioned to her current role as Head of Research and Development Aviation Education to focus on research and the collection of data to further the developments in the field of Aircraft Maintenance and Aviation Education, with the introduction of Competency Based Training and Assessment. She combines this work with PhD research at the Delft University of Technology, focusing on Transversal Competency Assessment in Aviation Maintenance Training.

Lydia is also President of the EAMTC (European Aviation Maintenance Training Committee) Working Group “New Training Standards” and a member of EASA’s Human Factor Collaborative Analysts Group.

Before migrating into aviation maintenance education, Lydia enjoyed time working in curriculum design for medical and paramedic Bachelor education programs at the University of Applied Sciences. At the department of Educational Neuroscience of Research Institute ‘LEARN’ at the VU University in Amsterdam Lydia was managing research communication for the entire educational field.

Lydia has a MSc. Degree in Neuropsychology.