ICAO Global Aviation Training & TRAINAIR PLUS Symposium

Chris Long reports from ICAO’s fifth symposium, held in Qatar.

The venue for the 2018 ICAO Global Aviation Training andTRAINAIR PLUS Symposium was Doha, Qatar. The event, sponsored in fine style by QatarAeronautical College, gathered some 1,000 delegates with a truly globalrepresentation for the three day conference.

High-powered Keynote speeches featuring H.E. Jassim SaifAhmed Al-Sulaiti, Minister of Transport and Communications (Qatar), Dr. FangLiu, Secretary General, International Civil Aviation Organisation and SheikhJabor Bin Hamad Al-Thani, Director General, Qatar Aeronautical College,launched the conference. They set the scene on the importance of commercialaviation as a catalyst to economic development, and confirmed the scale ofdemand for new entrants in all aviation disciplines.

The theme was “Aviation Training Intelligence” - a trade-markedterm registered to ICAO. Perhaps this needs a little explanation - this refersnot to brain horsepower, but to the gathering and use of data to analyse andshape aviation training. That involves everything from understanding thelearning habits of recruits new to the industry, the industry’s specific needs,the content of training and the selection of technology and platforms todeliver such training effectively and efficiently. There is a great deal ofdata now available, but the challenge, as everyone knows, is how to select the relevantdata for any given task. ICAO is very much aware that the rate of change in thebroader world is such that civil aviation training has at least to match thatrate. The acknowledged difficulty is that the world of aviation has so far beenshaped by (sometimes costly) experience which has created an extremely safetransportation system. Gradual evolution has been the mantra up until now.

Any changes are viewed in the context of maintaining thatcritical level of safety in a world where the pace of change in technology andbehaviours suggest that the long term consequences of adopting new solutionscannot be fully judged before implementing such revolution.

Focussed Sessions

The progression of the conference was through carefullyfocussed sessions. The first, concentrating on how to build trainingintelligence, ranged through identification of what issues should be addressedto capture the data. Human performance and behaviours have changed as a fullydigital generation enters the workplace. Not only have learning habits evolved,but behaviours and expectations too, have moved on. Greater priority is nowgiven to quality of life, and ethical issues now frequently play a part incareer choice. The old model of a job/career for life has been replaced by thewish to be flexible with employment, so people now choose to move between notonly jobs and companies, but often to completely different occupations. Thatmeans that there is even more burden on training and re-training tasks as newentrants and age groups join the industry. The upside is that this alsopresents an opportunity to benefit from fresh ideas and energy which anindividual’s earlier experience can bring. These ideas and lessons learntshould be shared, perhaps through regional groups of universities and ATOs, andthen into the global aviation training world.

The difficulty of measuring training effectiveness also wasthe subject of discussion. Whilst sophisticated Learning Management Systems,with and without the support of Artificial Intelligence (AI) can help, it wasinteresting to confirm that those with a more modest budget can create aneffective solution with basic (if painstaking) manual assessment of feedbackreports and data. Training effectiveness can also be measured in terms of Returnon (Financial) Investment (RoI) - for instance, can you justify the cost oftechnology by benefitting from the reduction in training time? Carefulselection of specific tasks for individuals can reduce training time - do youreally need de-icing training in Florida? Can National Aviation Authoritiesmore carefully mandate appropriate training within their own areas ofresponsibility, rather than a simple blanket instruction?

Education

A primary concern in the involvement of universities ineducation in the aviation disciplines is the lack of mutual internationalrecognition. Other professions - medicine and law, for example, do recogniseequivalent qualifications - aviation should do the same. The relatively modestpresence of aviation-related courses in most universities means that they havelow budgets, and critically, that reflects in the very small scale of R&Dprojects. We need to boost the importance of aviation in the mindset ofuniversities, and encourage more of them to specialise in aviation, like EmbryRiddle, Cranfield and the French state training organisation, ENAC.

We should also encourage creativity in universities bycross-fertilisation of thinking. For too long we have over-specialised whenchanneled into either STEM or humanist disciplines. To stimulate the mind andintroduce new thinking we should, for instance, include exposure to arts andculture into the curriculum of the engineering/scientific community. Thatflexibility is essential in a future where many of the existing jobs willeither change dramatically, or disappear completely as artificial intelligencetakes over the routine and boring tasks. The competencies and skills of a newgeneration require knowledge of digital working, agile thinking, communicationskills and thinking on a global operating scale.

Also explored was the exciting potential of marryingacademic competence with the acquisition of disruptive technology. The kind ofimaginative cooperation between academia and industry specialist training organisationsis needed, and is already seen with McGill University and ENAC, where exposureto “hard” and “soft” disruptive technologies is integrated into the educationalprocesses. There are also lessons to be learnt from the fact that in 2012, ofthe 244 industry CEOs identified by IATA, some 50% did not have a universitybackground. Promotion through competence and experience in the industry canprovide the leadership skills essential to successful enterprises. Internshipsto introduce academics to the industrial world, and industry starters to therealm of academics, should provoke new thinking and new approaches.

Using the Data

The question of how Aviation Data-Driven Decision Making(AD3M) can benefit training outcomes was addressed. It is now possible to drivedata to an individual level and so in theory, tailor training content and styleto match that individual’s characteristics. The challenge is to work towardsthat, and at the same time to recognise that confidentiality and dataprotection are an essential ingredient in the present and future context. Alsoin that mix is the issue of what data could be shared in the best interests forthe industry, and what should remain either individually or commerciallyprotected. Sharing data could well lead to improved standardisation and potentially,increased safety - how do we reconcile that sharing with security? We shouldassume that data will be breached, so how do we develop systems to mitigate theeffect of that?

On a very positive side, the feedback from good trainingdata will help to predict and shape improvements in training - that alreadydrives a lot of competency based training and assessment patterns, although notmuch of that is shared around the industry.

Mega data - for instance the predictive statistics onpilot/technician shortage, was not used effectively to react to long-term andclearly-identified issues. For instance - post 2008, training schemes ofsponsored cadet pilots and technician apprenticeships were abruptly halted becauseshort-term financial goals won out, in spite of that data. The hope is that inthe future such data-supported long term predictions will result in positiveaction.

New Technologies

A (the?) major influence on future training is theselection and adoption of emerging technologies. A note of caution was sounded,in that an objective assessment of such choices should be made - does thisinteresting technology actually add to, and improve training?

To spread the very high cost of training, there is the possibilityof enabling Open Technology with, perhaps basic course elements to be providedat no cost through a Freemium process, followed by specialist packagesavailable by pay-on-demand. This would enable those who can’t pay the whole sumimmediately to study part-time and get the qualifications progressively.

The almost instinctive adoption of such new technology wasillustrated by the case of a six-year old who, playing a video game, got stuck.The solution he immediately adopted was get in touch with a classmate and solvethe problem. This is a generation who, from the start, see collaboration andteamwork as the norm and the support of technology as the baseline. We mustbear that in mind when designing training methodology and platforms.

That collaborative process enters the game when dispersedgroups train together, linked by technology and, if necessary, simply guided byan instructional team. The use of avatars, and perhaps holograms, to mentor newarrivals not only appeals to this group, but helps to meet the challenge of thereducing numbers of experienced instructors.

In addressing the needs of that demographic, we need tosell the idea of formal training, create an attractive physical environment,present the training in modular and stackable units, and foster relationshipand ethics, melding them into the cultural skills essential for the newworkplaces.

Overview

In his scene-setting initial speech, Meshesha Belayneh,deputy director of the Technical Cooperation Bureau ICAO and chief of the ICAOGlobal Aviation Training Office, emphasised the need for the regulators torecognise and embrace the rapid changes in technology, training and socialtrends in the aviation industry. This conference put those issues into thespotlight, and provided some indicators of where those changes might beleading.

Editor’s Note:

It is interesting to note Jack Ma’s (Alibaba) assertion that we need to completely change the approach to education. He implies that for centuries (millennia?) education has assumed that the acquisition of knowledge was the goal, after which such knowledge could be applied. Ma believes that we should leave that knowledge base to the AI systems. We should concentrate on the nurturing of the unique human characteristics of creativity, teamwork, communications skills. In other words we should be fostering the “soft” skills which present AIs can’t replicate. Melding those to the “just in time” knowledge which AIs can bring creates a whole new dynamic to the workplace. Does such a mindset fit future aviation training?

Published in CAT issue 1/2019