Conversation with Commercial Aviation Safety and Training Leader: Tanja Schmidt, Director of Training, IATA

Tanja Schmidt began her role with the International Air Transport Association in September 2024, inheriting a department which manages hundreds of training courses across dozens of airline-related categories: airline management, operations, air navigation, cargo, dangerous goods, environment, ticketing, finance, law and regulation, safety, security, tourism, even courses for civil aviation authorities. 

To deliver the courses around the globe, the Geneva, Switzerland- and Montréal, Canada-headquartered IATA leans on hundreds of industry partners with specific subject expertise.

Rick Adams: Tanja, what is the professional background you bring to this role?

Tanja Schmidt: My entire career has been in aviation, so I was extremely enthusiastic about it from the start and thought it would be fantastic to explore the various aspects of the aviation ecosystem. I started as an instructor at an airport in Qatar, trying to help employees transition from an old airport to a new. There were so many elements of the operations on the ground that I thought very, very interesting. And when you are working in training, you get to learn about everything yourself.

From there I went to the airline itself, Qatar Airways, and continued to design leaning materials from scratch, coming up with innovative solutions on how we can train a global workforce. This was another eye opener for me, because when you have a very diverse culture or diverse team that you would be teaching or training, really go in all parts in the world and see how maybe the same approach does not necessarily resonate everywhere because of different cultures, different needs, different regulations, different language barriers.

At one point I thought, technology is on the rise; it would be great if we could embark a little bit more into that direction. I was supporting Qatar Airways to transition to a more digital learning organization, supporting all aspects of all training functions within the Qatar Airways Group to digitalize, to come up with new innovative training programs, to redesign and be able to teach well, to instruct more by - hopefully - traveling sometimes a bit less.

I then transitioned to work for Boeing, where I was a managing director and was leading Boeing's early career portfolio. Boeing has a department that is taking care of all the cadets globally that fly under FAA and EASA, and also the young technicians and engineers in Europe or in the US or in Africa or wherever they are based. So I was leading that portfolio and we were digitalizing the approach to training for this group of students.

We were working with all the flight schools globally, looking into the new competency-based training and assessment approach, CBTA, and how can we implement this, leading teams in Europe, the US, in Asia, all for the same common cause and trying to support the aviation community in all the different parts of the world.

Fast forward, I'm in IATA and have the privilege to support the overall training landscape, because this role now pretty much combines everything I have done over all these years, because it's all sorts of areas of training in the aviation eco-chain. So we are supporting airport training, airline training, commercial training, technical training, ground operations, cargo safety, security, literally like a matrix organization having all the different industries within the aviation ecosystem, but then also different disciplines from operational to technical to, let's say the essential skills like the soft skills types of training. So combining the knowledge from all the different areas that I've worked at, plus the discipline of aviation and then also being able to transform this training department and the training offering that we can bring to our industry, is quite exciting.

Rick Adams: That’s a huge scope. What have you found as key challenges?

Tanja Schmdt: We are training more than 100,000 people a year. As you say, the scope is really, really vast.

Primarily the challenge that I see is that the industry is transforming in so many aspects. At one side, of course, different regulators that require different needs for their countries: different language needs, different delivery mechanisms. In some parts of the world, the industry is extremely advanced. Organizations are already absolutely on the automation or connectivity path. They are using new systems backed with AI. So their training needs are very, very different to perhaps other parts of the world where even internet connectivity is still quite challenging, or the personnel are starting off for the first time in the aviation industry, everything is still quite traditional. So it's such a mix of needs and priorities across the globe to meet the needs on all ends... quite challenging.

Rick Adams: How do you see IATA's role in this ecosystem? Are you there primarily to provide guidance? Are you developing courseware? Are you delivering courses? A little bit of all of the above?

Tanja Schmidt: I think IATA has been always a very trusted partner for our industry, especially training; we do deliver high-quality products. Our customers can rely on the fact that everything is up to date and that the regulations are exactly depicted in the courses.

But I think there is a bigger need now, Rick. The industry is changing; we need to become more of a strategic partner for the organizations. Training becomes a strategic enabler for companies to meet their strategic goals because with the need of upskilling and reskilling people, in times when everything is changing, they need to stay on top. Understanding what type of skills we have in an organization, that's a function where training can play a really key role. We are trying to break down job roles into skills. Which skills are actually required to perform the role, and what are the skills of the future that are needed for an employee to perform still at the same rate output as they do today moving forward.

So how can we help? How can we be that strategic support for organizations beyond the single course that we can deliver? That is something where I see IATA moving into being that trusted strategic partner from an HR and learning and development perspective, touching on many aspects in the life cycle of an employee. Starting off with supporting organizations in their strategic positioning from an HR perspective.

Which type of employee or roles do I need? What type of skills do I need? Understanding how can I get there with my existing workforce? Or how can I keep employees in my organization without losing them to other organizations or into other industries even? Right. There's a significant shift happening. We certainly try to be more of a supporting hand to the industry beyond the training product itself.

Rick Adams: IATA is famous for things like the IOSA audit, the gold standard of which airlines are measuring up. Do you have parallels for that in some of the training subject areas, whether it's ground handling or hazardous materials or ... ? How do you work with the strategic partners to make sure that they're following the guidance on what you want them to deliver?

Tanja Schmidt: We also have other areas beyond IOSA (IATA Operational Safety Audit). For example, there's ISAGO for the ground services staff (IATA Safety Audit for Ground Operations). There are Dangerous Goods regulations that we actively support for our strategic partners in various parts of this world. They would need to follow all sorts of regulations that make the aviation ecosystem safe. They are contributing to their part of enabling safety.

Different countries have nuances in their regulation. Employees working on the ground might not all be as fluent in English. So we have strategic partners supporting us in delivering this training. According to IATA standard, they get certified. This is a very rigid approach and process that they have to go through if they would like to become an IATA Data Training provider. We want to make sure that safety is on the forefront of everything we do, especially in countries where the aviation industry is exploding, like India or Saudi Arabia. So many new employees need to be onboarded in order to meet these strategic goals of making aviation a key pillar of the country.

Bringing so many people on also requires a rigid approach to safety awareness, safety culture and supporting employees that are new to the industry and understanding how important that is.

We have as well, for example, a training for auditors of civil aviation authorities that will go into flight schools to help them understand what is CBTA, how do I assess if a school is following standards, auditing that the flight schools are adhering to the rules and regulations of the regulator.

Rick Adams: With regard to competency-based training and assessment, we hear a lot about that in terms of flight training. But are you seeing it in other elements of aviation training?

Tanja Schmidt: Yes, we have that in dangerous goods. EASA has changed the regulation to also apply competency-based training and assessment in dangerous goods training. I think this is one of the the first ones outside the pilot and technician community that is now transitioning into that approach. It's all about making sure people understand or have situational awareness, being able to apply the knowledge in all sorts of different situations and contexts so they can properly apply the knowledge in the work environment.

We have adopted many aspects of CBTA from the pilot and technician standards, to understand the core competencies and then helping people to apply it. These courses are no longer simply a knowledge transfer, but it's really a capacity/ competency skill building that we are supporting where people have hands-on experience, where they get different scenarios, where they need to practice, not only in the classroom. As a training provider, we are only partially able to support the shift there. This is a huge responsibility that lies with the organizations for whom the employees are working because there's so many more touch points.

It's such a long duration in which a school would interact with the cadet or with the student, and where they shift towards understanding how important behaviours are, etc. When we come in and a course takes five days, it is a limited period in which we can support that shift. Nevertheless, we are looking into aspects on how we can tackle that with continuous follow ups. It's engaging the industry to make sure that they are also aware of what it means. Aware of how they can track behaviour changes. And working with these hands-on trainings, scenario-based trainings where actions have consequences in a safety environment.

Rick Adams: What might be some other areas that you're thinking of moving into beyond Dangerous Goods?

Tanja Schmidt: I would like to take a slight step back. I think this is a very particular term that applies to the aviation industry. And CBTA might not apply to all aspects because the question is what are the competencies that we are trying to monitor or to foster. I would rather like to take the approach of training from a corporate perspective. So not necessarily aviation-related, but overall, and the entire learning industry is moving towards skills, skills and competencies similar to CBTA, but not 100% CBTA.

I think there's a lot of connecting points that we see here and this is where we are going with IATA training. We are identifying certain skills that are required for various job functions within the aviation industry. What are the skills? How do these skills look moving forward? What type of competencies do you need to have and how can we skill people or how can we meet those requirements for them to be successful in their roles not only today, but also in a couple of years time? And three years from now, it will already be quite different in some functions. Ten years from now will be again different, let alone maybe 20. So the whole skills and competency aspect has a key role for us.

One example: we have one big initiative kicking off (this) week called the Airline Management Challenge, where we work with universities across the globe. We have a lot of American aviation universities, like Embry-Riddle, for example, that are participating. And they are nominating a handful of their students to attend the challenge. Moving from an academic-only approach to learning about the aviation industry to a practical one.

Students get presented, over a course of two weeks, and they need to stand up an airline from scratch - a software solution. One person has the role of the head of marketing. The next one is the head of procurement. The next person is the network planner and revenue management. They need to apply their knowledge and they are faced with all sorts of challenges. Suddenly there is an aircraft delivery delay. Suddenly there is a crisis in country. At one point they might receive competition on their routes. There are conflicting priorities, how do you then respond? It's not only the textbook, it is real situations based on real scenarios that have happened in the world. And we try to put our candidates a bit under stress as well. How do you how to react? How do you communicate? How do you evolve in these types of stressful situations? And then the winning university team will be the ones that come out with the strongest airline at the end of this challenge. That have had the biggest commercial success, the highest safety rating, etc. It's also a form of building skills and competencies by having real-world examples where we will be able to let them practice, but practice in a safe environment with real-world examples.

The universities have a full year’s time to apply for the challenge, and now we have 17 universities that are participating this year that all start Tuesday.

https://www.iata.org/en/training/trainingpartners/academic-partners/airline-management-challenge/

https://www.iata.org/en/training/courses/training-customer-success/airline-management-challenge/

Rick Adams: In terms of developing the competencies for the different skills, different airline personnel, are you using a training needs analysis or instructional system design process?

Tanja Schmidt: We do all sorts. One thing is a learning design function within the training department here at IATA that is a rigid development process that follows industry standards.

Where do we get our data from and where do we get our insights? We work a lot with our customers in the industry. Civil aviation authorities. Airlines. Airports or ground handling providers. We are very strongly connected to the heads of training, to the CEO of these companies, and really have strategic discussions on what their needs are, what their challenges are in different countries, and how we can support them in their journey. So this is one sort of a needs analysis, but also on a partially more strategic level, let's say, rather than on a tactical operational level.

The other thing, we have started to look more much into data. We at IATA are able to see many more aspects of the aviation industry as many points come together than perhaps a single user would be able to find out. We can see, for example, when there are challenges, political challenges, that there's more competition or how the market is evolving.

That also helps us to understand what training needs evolve. We are now on a journey where we are analysing our data that we have in our own systems, for example, in our own learning management system, to see where do people have the biggest challenges when they go through our exams, for example? This could be an indication on whether or not we need to alter our materials. Or is this actually an area where people in general need more support in understanding the topics? When we have 100,000 people going through our learning content, we capture a lot of data in our system. Another aspect could be what happens if people have gone through different courses - has this actually improved or changed their trajectory in their career?

There are so many different aspects that we are looking into when designing a new course, when changing content of an existing one and trying to evolve it. With all these new technologies, we can capture more and more data and information that hopefully will come for a benefit to our learners globally.

Rick Adams: In terms of data analytics, are you using AI for any of the training?

Tanja Schmidt: We do not use AI for design of training courses. We do start soon, with the help of AI, some of the translations in different languages. That is, at this point, the extent of AI that we are using because I think with AI we have a very sensitive industry that we are serving, which is highly safety-focused. I think using AI needs to be, as well, taken with a pinch of salt and should be done carefully. What we are doing though is looking into languages, looking into providing some products in various languages that we don't do today, and AI can help us in the translation process; it doesn't mean that AI will do it all, but it can help to move forward.

Rick Adams: AI, when it's applied to something like aviation, as you mentioned, safety and so forth, you're needing to work with a very defined set of data that's very structured. And that's one of the biggest challenges right now, many of the data points are not in a proper structure to be analyzed by the AI. What I would love to see is some sort of a data lake of shared best practices and best data, that all of the industry can benefit to a certain extent. I thought that an organization like IATA could help to be a focal point for that sort of a common data lake within the aviation industry.

Rick Adams: Changing gears, I came across a reference that you're supportive of bringing more women into aviation. Could you provide your perspective on that?

Tanja Schmidt: Aviation still is a very male-dominated industry in many aspects. For me personally, aviation has always been my dream industry. It has so many fascinating areas and parts of the industry that I'm 100% sure more women would find a lot of love in it equally. There is, especially now in the emerging markets, more need to communicate about it as well. A pilot is not only a man, it could be as well more women that should be in the front and fly these amazing birds around the world.

We have so many engineering degrees across the world. We have so many technical jobs that women are growing more and more into. Why not also the aviation industry? I think we need to do more showing how this can be combined with all aspects of private lives. So yes, there should be much more women in aviation. Advocacy with young teenage girls should happen, and making sure that they understand how there is something like the aviation industry and it has so many aspects to it. Creating a bit of a better overview of what it is and that perhaps it's not only meaning being a pilot. I can lift up my hand as one. I'm not. And I'm working in a fantastic space in aviation on learning and development. There are so many aspects where women can work in, where I'm sure they can contribute so much to the success of companies and the industry sectors.

Rick Adams: You mentioned there are a lot of new people coming into the industry, especially in certain parts of the world. We're still coming out of the effects of Covid and what that did to the industry. We talk a lot about pilot shortage and maybe other shortages of personnel. But where do you see the greatest needs? In what parts of the world and what types of personnel do we need to get trained up quickly?

Tanja Schmidt: Many aspects, many more layers, unfortunately. For example, in Europe, we are really in dire need of having more ground personnel. Of course, pilots are one part, but ground personnel are equally important and it's extremely difficult to attract talent into these roles. Having people in shift work at times, unfortunately, at minimum wages in a very labour-intensive environment. It's not so easy anymore to attract the amount of people that are actually needed.

Europe has a different challenge to face than the Middle East; you see the need for all sorts of aviation personnel because the airports are growing. Airlines are growing. Ground handling providers are growing. Everything is growing. And their challenge is that locally, in general, they do not have enough talent, so they go and seek employees, for example, in Asia, or in Africa.

In Africa, the moment employees have gotten more education in their areas or have started to receive more diplomas, more certificates that prove that they have gone through various training products and training modules, they become more and more attractive for Middle Eastern organizations to offer them a job. Which means then, that in totality, the aviation industry in Africa is not advancing much because every time people are being trained up, they are getting hired from the Middle East. So this is a huge, huge challenge.

Also, considering how much Asia is growing. It's not so easy anymore for the Middle East, carriers or airports, to bring people in from India, from Pakistan at times, maybe from Thailand or from the Philippines, etc., because their industries are growing. There are a lot of jobs and opportunities in their home countries.

We have challenges of politics and regulatory topics in Europe that make it hard to attract people or to bring them into the industry fast enough. Training is an aspect of it. But it's not all.

You see a lot of poaching. One organization trying to attract talent from another. And so it's a continuous rotation that's happening; that can be good, but can also be extremely challenging because attrition rates are going up, then people need to be trained again from scratch. You are missing out on a lot of operational capacity. You have to continuously build up the base again in order to grow from there on.

So, yeah, a multitude of challenges, I would say.

Rick Adams: And it's not just the technical skills; the culture has a lot to do with it, either the culture of the region or the culture of the airline itself.

Tanja Schmidt: When it comes to pilots, I think that's going to be an interesting one moving forward when we see all the aircraft orders that have been placed over the last years. Certain economies are going to grow a lot. Where do we get all these pilots and cadets from? That is going to be for sure a continuous question that will arise. I know that there are significant efforts that are happening from the OEMs, from regulators, from civil aviation authorities, to support the training efforts, to support standard setting, to support all of these aspects and making it safe. For sure, it continues to be a challenge to have so many people needing to enter the industry in the next years.

Rick Adams: Final thoughts?

Tanja Schmidt: Certainly one is the need for transformation. We need to understand what is needed in the next years to come. And we need to start now. We need to start adopting and seeing which needs arise in order to stay safe, in order to stay competitive and in order to stay operational for sure.

The topic of skills should not be underestimated in any capacity. Understanding what it takes to do certain roles and being able to hire people as well that are coming from adjacent industries or can bring transferable knowledge into the aviation industry and make it grow as well, but also help countries and companies to fulfill their vision when it comes to aviation, travel and tourism.

Another one is data. Data can tell us a lot. We do need to learn more on how to validate data; all sorts of data is available. Validation of data, being able to accurately interpret them, but then also improving safety, improving the products that we offer to our employees.

Rick Adams: Thank you very much for your time and your expertise. I look forward to meeting you in Orlando at WATS.