Volodymyr Bilotkach’s childhood passion admittedly was transportation. He jokes, ‘you know how teenagers tend to have posters in their bedroom, well mine was the schedule for Kyiv’s central railway station’. His passion for transportation led him to study economics and from there entered the aviation industry. While completing his doctorate in Economics in the US, he became interested in air travel from the US to Ukraine. Consequentially, his Ph.D. was in the Economics of Aviation. This dissertation became the introduction to his storied career in aviation, eventually leading to his role of co-editor-in-chief of The Journal of Air Transport Management.
Bilotkach’s shift in specialization led him to a teaching position specifically for aviation professionals. Comparing his academic work and teaching, Volodymyr says that both lines of work have specific challenges. While writing academic papers, it is difficult to thread the line between making them accessible to all readers and challenging enough for other experts. Whereas lecturing work requires a lot of flexibility, and the ability to adjust the material according to the needs and concerns of students.
Volodymyr admits that the decision to completely change his professional trajectory was the most difficult of his career. Since Bilotkach previously had taught solely economics, to suddenly start delivering an airport management course was a massive change. Even though this decision did come with considerable risk, Volodymyr evaluates it as ultimately the right move.
Now, since Bilotkach has been in the industry for a number of years, he knows exactly what qualities are needed for a successful career. According to Volodymyr, having an analytical mindset is an essential trait for anyone working in the aviation industry. As Bilotkach sees it ‘the industry produces quite a lot of data, so you need to know how to work with it’.
He also adds that the industry is very dynamic, everything changes constantly. As an example, Volodymyr mentions the pandemic and how during this crisis new technologies appeared in air navigation services, and airlines started looking for new business opportunities. In order to make sense of all the rapid changes, having an analytical mind is paramount.
Another important trait that Bilotkach himself is now perfecting is having great expertise in virtual teaching and learning. According to Volodymyr, ‘as technology is developing virtual learning will become an important part of this industry’. Having experienced the e-learning environment first-hand, he has some useful insights. Bilotkach predicts that e-learning will play a very important role in the future of education. Specifically teaching that conveys knowledge of a more technical nature.
Volodymyr decided to hone his skills in virtual teaching by working with Aeroclass. Bilotkach was attracted to Aeroclass because of the experts working here, as he says, ‘this is a platform that has potential because it has attracted the right people’.
Listen to Volodymyr Bilotkach’s Expert Talk and find out more about his collaboration with Aeroclass.
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