EATS 2024: Lufthansa’s Journey in Instructor Concordance for Enhanced CBTA

Today at EATS 2024, Frank Steiner from Lufthansa shared valuable insights into how instructor concordance plays a pivotal role in ensuring effective, consistent training within the Competency-Based Training and Assessment (CBTA)framework. 

Through Lufthansa’s Instructor Concordance Assurance Programme (ICAP), developed in collaboration with conavitra, the airline has prioritized standardizing instructor assessments, a foundational element in delivering reliable, evidence-based training (EBT). ICAP’s objective is to minimize variability among instructors’ assessments, thereby enhancing the quality and reliability of pilot training.

The process of instructor concordance aligns with inter-rater reliability principles, which measure the level of agreement among instructors evaluating pilot performance. By conducting annual concordance analyses and implementing ongoing assessments, ICAP addresses gaps and refines evaluation standards. 

This approach aligns with EASA’s Baseline EBT, which emphasizes using instructor concordance as a basis for developing trustworthy, data-driven training programs. High concordance rates lead to more objective, standardized assessments across instructors, creating a more cohesive training environment and reliable evaluation framework.

Instructor concordance has broad applications beyond Lufthansa, as it helps airlines manage potential biases in evaluations, ensuring that every instructor applies consistent criteria when assessing competencies. Studies highlight that when instructor assessments align, the evidence collected becomes a more reliable predictor of pilot competency. 

This standardization process, now part of the IATA EBT Implementation Guide, is becoming a benchmark for global EBT models, setting an international standard for data-driven, competency-focused aviation training

Lufthansa’s journey exemplifies how instructor concordance, particularly through structured programs like ICAP, not only supports effective CBTA implementation but also contributes to safer, more resilient pilot training by emphasizing consistency and reducing assessment discrepancies.