If you go into a coffee shop, the barista might have a name plate that says ‘trainee’. Student drivers have markings on their car to let others know they are still practicing, and when a student pilot is on a training flight, they write ‘school flight’ in the flight plan’s remarks. Why do you think this is? Is there an underlying notion that training will somehow affect service quality and therefore others should know about it?

If that is the case, why don’t we in ATC let pilots know when we have training in progress?Have a look at this Skybrary article about Safety occurrences during OJT. From the article we see that On-the-Job Training indeed poses a measurable safety impact, in light of reported occurrences. Even though the article is a bit dated and the statistics are not clarified on a detailed level, we think it’s safe to conclude that ATC On-the-Job training really has an effect on operational safety. 

Let’s take a moment and think about this.

On-the-Job Training in Air Traffic Control adds an additional layer of complexity to an already complex system. Even though the instructor is responsible for the quality of service and safety, it’s actually someone else who is holding the controls. The additional complexity comes from the quality of communication, understanding and overall cooperation between the student and the instructor. The instructor’s ability to maintain a picture of the situation which aligns with the students situational awareness, plays an extremely important role in safe training operations.

Now, we could go on and on about this subject, but for the sake of keeping it simple we want to concentrate on the importance of prioritising safety over training. It means that safety always comes first. This might seem too obvious to mention, but we cannot stress it enough. Whenever there is a situation that you think isn’t safe, or you assess that the situation is evolving into a direction that you are not comfortable with, act immediately. In these cases training objectives and student centered pedagogical approaches fall down in priority. Make an intervention, take over the position or give clear instructions to the student on what to do and say, even if this wasn’t the preferable thing to do training-wise. Be vigilant and updated on what is happening in the position and in the air at all times, and update your Situational Awareness actively. This way you can balance your actions to ensure both safety and learning.