"I think the art of learning has changed a lot and young kids today learn in a different way through gaming," Bell told Defence Connect. "Science will show you that if a learning exercise is a game [and] there's a point system or something like that, they [not only] learn better but they [also] retain the knowledge much longer."

While Bell said that, to some extent, "the science and the technology and the kid comes almost as a given… the really smart stuff is in the art of learning".

"It's interactive," he continued. "Gone are the days of pages and pages of text and reading an air crew manual and falling asleep on chapter one, [which meant] everybody knew the electrics but nobody knew the hydraulics."

Bell said current practice centered on providing an interactive environment where candidates could see things working and moving and take in the consequences of failure.

"They can see it and it's that interactive technology which is so important," he said.