Air Traffic Management

I have made several references in the past to various training documents published by Eurocontrol, ranging from common core content syllabi, to training plans, to development and design guidelines and e-learning.

I have not yet given the link to a place where ALL the Eurocontrol Training Related documents could be found. And that was because there was unfortunately no one specific place where to look.

Now this is history, and an online catalogue of training documents is now available.

Goto http://e-learning.eurocontrol.int and click on the Training Publications link on the left hand menu.

Enjoy.

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Three years ago, Eurocontrol set to develop training material to sensiblise air traffic controllers on the risks that can occure during position handovers and to provide suggestions and tools to minimise these risks.

In preparation for the development of this training material, a research study was conducted to identify the factors affecting handovers and takeovers. The document referred to here reports the findings of this research. It includes the following sections:

• A literature review including reports on the study performed by the National Air Traffic Services Ltd. UK (NATS) on handovers and the establishment of best practices based on this study;
• Interviews of Safety Experts which summarises the interviews on handover-related safety hazards conducted with the safety managers of two Air Navigation Services Providers (ANSPs);
• Training Material Review, the existing pedagogic material relative to position handovers in Europe is reviewed and analysed (prior to the Web-based training on factors dealing with handover/takeover produced by EUROCONTROL in 2006);
• Identification of the Main Handover-related Safety Issues’, provides, based on the information collected during the study, a preliminary list of the main handover-related safety issues that should be addressed to improve handover processes and
• Key findings of this preliminary study on handover

It also contains  a number of checklists whcih were in use in different European ANSPs

It can be found here

Enjoy the read.

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I have come across a very interesting report which in fact is a testimony of
Henry Krakowski, Chief Operating Officer, Air Traffic Organization
before the House of Representatives Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, Subcommittee on Aviation on Air Traffic Control Facility Staffing of the United States of America.

This testimony goes into what the FAA is doing in terms of staffing, recruitment and training to ensure that they continuously have the right amount of controllers to ensure services of a high level of quality and services.

One of the key messages that I take from this testimony is that the FAA have learnt a great lesson from the events that lead to and those which followed the controllers’ strike and firing in 1981.

I have experienced myself some of the things mentioned in this testimony, like the problems they have with mass retirements [because there were mass recruitments following 1981 of people of the same age-bracket].  The solutions they found were similar to the ones we had applied in terms of increasing training throughput and decreasing the training time by investing in technology [e.g. simulations]

What is also interesting in this testimony is how the FAA is making efforts to diversify its personnel in terms of gender, social background and interests. I think that some of the European counterparts could learn a lesson from this [whereas others have comparable strategies].

Anyway, I write no more…except for the link: http://www.faa.gov/news/testimony/news_story.cfm?newsId=10238

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Will you be entrusted the responsibility of deploying an e-learning programme in your organisation?

Would you simply like to know what others think about good practices when organising e-learning programmes?

Are you wondering what are the key elements that should be kept in mind when doing this, including the things to do and the others to avoid?

EUROCONTROL has worked on a brief document of around 30 pages which deals with this.

Click here to download

The main elements to retain in this document are:

1. E-learning is first and foremost learning and therefore the same principles as for other [e.g. face to face] learning modes apply.
2. Never try to take the human from the loop. Students need a human tutor somewhere to keep them motivated.  The less human contact there is the greater the risk of de-motivation is
3. Have a strategy and a plan on how to implement the strategy when organising e-learning programmes.

There are of course more good practice advice in this document, but the rest is for you to discover…

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Unit Training Plans can be considered simply as being Training Plans for the Unit Training Phase towards receiving an ATCO License [It is preceeded by Basic and Rating Training]

Unit Training Leads the candidate towards a unit endorsement on his ATCO license [Which will make him or her a fully fledged qualified ATCO]

Each ATC training unit in Europe responsible of providing unit training to its candidates is obliged to have a Documented Unit Training Plan which is approved by the regulatory authority who is responsible of issuing ATCO licenses for the unit in question.

In simple terms, a unit training plan is a combination of a description of the training process and of the trainign objectives that shall be covered during unit training.

If you need further information on how to construct this unit training plan, both in terms of process and of objectives, here is a good link for you.

Eurocontrol has published these guidelines following a request by European training entities for support in this domain.

Have you been involved in the development of unit training plans?  What is your experience like?  I would really appreciate any feedback you could provide.  Please leave a comment or contact me directly by following the about button on the top right corner.

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A team of e-learning developers working in different ATM training organisations have written a set of guidelines on the development of web based training material based on their experience and knowledge.The document is called: Best practices for e-learning developers in ATM and can be downloaded by following this link:

This document is divided into four main chapters:

1. instructional design,
2. human factors [meaning factors relating to behaviour and to other human aspects that need to be taken into account by an e-learning developer to successfully fulfill his/her role],
3. project management and
4. technical aspects.

The chapter on instructional design is of particular interest to the training designer as it explores items such as:

• When should e-learning be used?
• How is e-learning best used?
• Getting to know the learner
• Learning styles
• Considerations on the adult learner
• Considering the task: a focus on ATC
• The design process
• From subject matter to interactive matter Â
• Navigation and Look and Feel
• Methods and media to be used in e-learning when teaching: skills, data retention and knowledge

Etc. There are also items in the human factors and in the project management chapters that would be of interest to the training designer.

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EUROCONTROL has just published a best practices document for e-learning developers in ATM.

This document, covers the following themes:

• roles and teams,
• suitable e-learning design,
• successful e-learning methods,
• e-learning pedagogy,
• a guide to programming basics and
• e-learning development project management.

If you want to create your own e-learning courses, but have no prior experience of doing so, we suggest that you read it before making your first moves.

The document is structured in such a way as to allow you to skim though it at a high level, looking only at the main points, or to dig deeper into any particular issues that you should wish.

The document was produced by the e-Learning Developers Task Force (EDTF), which I chair, as part of the SENSE program.

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