Air traffic control is a crucial industry regarding people’s safety, which is why it is essential for trainees to reach a certain standard to become qualified Air Traffic Controllers. It is the responsibility of the ATC Training organisations to ensure that the trainees are trained according to the regulations, and to the high standards of the job, as safety requirements cannot be compromised at any stage.
The requirement of high standards for ATCO work means that the training has to prepare the students for a multitude of challenging work situations. However, what if it takes too long for a student and they cannot proceed or finish the course in time? Does this mean that he or she cannot become an Air Traffic Controller at all?
Well, because such high standards are required, it is inevitable that the students find training challenging, especially if time pressure is involved. If it would be too easy, the standards of ATC Training would remain low. Training completion timelines are only determined by the ATC Training organisations themselves. They are based on average times of learning and also on the budget of those who are procuring the training. In other words, how much resources do they want to invest in training their future Air Traffic Controllers. This resource issue creates a limit for the duration of training.
The timelines don’t consider the individual needs on the learning spectrum. Some students might need extra time or support to complete the course due to a variety of reasons such as learning challenges or other factors in their personal lives, or simply because their learning methods are different from what the training organisation is using.
Every student is a unique learner and not everyone learns exactly the same way. For some, it actually takes longer for new information to sink in. Everyone takes their own route on their learning journey, but the end goal is still the same for everybody - learning the required skills. Why does it matter how the learning happened, as long as it actually happened?
The same applies the other way around too: some students might find the course easier and would like to finish ahead of others. This can be due to factors such as innate talent, suitable learning methods, earlier experience, or existing skills and interests. However, it doesn’t necessarily mean that students who learn faster will perform significantly better at work than the students who took longer to complete the training course.
If an ATC Training organisation fails someone in the middle of their training due to the pace of their learning, you might not only discourage the individual from their chosen career path, but you might also lose a future star performer. History presents several examples of people who have succeeded in their careers after a number of failures (e.g. Walt Disney, J. K Rowling). Sometimes that extra time and extra practice leads to deeper understanding and better self-confidence with the acquired skills.
As we can see, all ATC Training journeys are not identical. Therefore, the ethos in any academy must be that with ample support and guidance anyone is trainable to become an Air Traffic Control professional. The main objective of training organisations must be to ensure that their students learn effectively. If the goal is only to teach according to regulations and make sure all boxes are ticked, it is easy to blame the student for the inevitable failures in training.
The academy can say that they do everything by the book, and it is the student who is “not fit for the job”, if they do not adapt to the training requirements. Resource limitations drive ATC Training organisations to give up on students who take longer than average to learn. The student is left without the support they might need to succeed only because the academy can only invest so much in any one trainee. ATC Training organisations should provide all the extra support in their power to students who need it. They should not leave anyone behind, but rather go the extra mile and then some for students to succeed. By doing this, the industry would not lose potential future superstars along the way. They would not need to pay the high price of searching, testing, selecting, and training someone else to replace the ones whose training were terminated early. This way, the training organisations would be forced to look at their own processes and make sure they are not the ones blocking anyone’s success. Training organisations would have to be student-centred and not resource centred.
The purpose of Lektor existing is to ensure students learn appropriately and that they are successful in their training. The way to achieve this is to redesign ATC Training to fit the learning preferences and methods of modern ATC Trainees. Training that resonates with the student is motivating, engaging, and compelling. It propels the trainee into the flow of learning. To get there, the resource restrictions must be lifted. Lektor is developing a scalable training solution, where lack of resources is no longer an issue. Scalable training solutions allow unlimited support for the student and unrestricted opportunities to run learning events, such as simulations. It ensures that no trainee is abandoned, and that anyone is trainable. Because we at Lektor believe that ATC is for everyone!
