CAT Leader Forum - Bringing Airlines, ATOs, OEMs & Industry together

Industry Webinar Topic 3 - Evidence-Based Training/Competency-Based Training & Assessment (EBT/CBTA) - 27th May 2021

Register here

We are delighted to unveil our panel of experts, who will share their knowledge and expertise as well as answer any questions you may have. 

• Frederik Mohrmann, EBT Program Manager, Royal Netherlands Aerospace Center (NLR)

Frederik has a Master’s degree aerospace engineering, with a specialization in flight operations and safety. In addition, Frederik has extensive research experience in the field of human factors, aviation psychology and human performance. At the Netherlands Aerospace Center (NLR) he is currently spearheading NLR research and development program for EBT, which supports best-practice implementation of EBT and CBTA.

Frederik has presented at numerous aviation training, engineering and safety conferences, including a keynote address for best paper at the European Association for Aviation Psychology, and presentations at the Resilience Engineering Association (REA), AIAA, TU Delft symposia, national aviation congresses and many smaller seminars. In his spare time he is a glider and aerobatics instructor.

• Captain Andy Mitchell, FRAeS, Chair, EASA Aircrew Training Policy Group (ATPG)

Andy’s background & passion spans both technology and aviation training. He has over 16 years and 10,000 flying hours on the A320 family aircraft culminating in a variety of pilot training & management roles. In technology, he’s a strong industry advocate of agile software best-practices and how they can be applied effectively to aviation. And, as an expert in CBTA and ABLE, he sits as a member of the IATA EBT Core Group and as an advisor to EASA RMT.0599 and the EASA ABLE concept paper. He is currently the Chair of the EASA Aircrew Training Policy Group (ATPG).

• Dr Nicklas Dahlstrom, Human Factors Manager at Emirates.

In this position, Nicklas has overseen CRM training in a rapidly expanding airline and also been part of efforts to integrate Human Factors in the organisation. He has been with the airline since 2007. Nicklas was previously a researcher and instructor at Lund University School of Aviation in Sweden, working mainly on projects related to safety and Human Factors in aviation as well as in other areas, such as maritime transportation, nuclear industry and health care. His research areas in aviation have been mental workload, training and simulation and he has written research articles and book chapters on Human Factors and CRM as well as delivered invited presentations, lectures and training in more twenty different countries.

• Stephen Mercer, Standards Training Manager at Emirates.

Studied aero and production engineering and then had flying licenses sponsored by a small charter company serving the oil industry in Scotland. Later progressed to Air 2000 Ltd and flew the Boeing 757 and Airbus 320.

In 1996, Stephen joined Emirates Airlines, based in Dubai, initially flying the Airbus 310 and 300 on which qualified as a trainer and later moving to the B777 as a TRE and Senior Examiner. In 2013, he progressed to Standards Training Manager for Emirates Flight Training, managing the ATQP programme and project managed the recurrent training programme through mixed EBT to full implementation in 2020.

• Patrick Murray, Director of Salient and Head of Operations for Aviation Australia.

Patrick has an extensive background as a pilot, flight instructor, senior academic and manager, with the broad perspective of having held leadership positions in the military, a major international airline and a Government safety regulator.

Holding postgraduate qualifications in Aviation Management, Patrick lectures and supervises research in Safety and Human Factors. Patrick has an international reputation as an aviation safety & training professional. He is a longstanding member of the LOSA Collaborative development team, has published widely and has been an invited chair and keynote speaker at several international conferences in aviation safety and training as well as other high skill, high risk disciplines such as healthcare.

He is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and has held directorships of an international safety consultancy and an international not for profit organisation as well as a Governor General appointment to the Australian Government Veterans Review Board. Patrick is a Liveryman and Master Air Pilot of the Honourable Company of Air Pilots and is the recipient of an international award for his services to aviation.

He has been awarded fellowships of The Royal Aeronautical Society; The Australian Institute of Management; The Australian Institute for Quality and The Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport. He is currently the inaugural industry Chair of the CASA Aviation Safety Advisory Panel.

WHY EBT?

Evidence-Based Training / Competency-Based Training & Assessment (EBT/CBTA) protocols are being implemented worldwide; ICAO, IATA and EASA have provided guidance and regulatory material, but still a lot of questions and uncertainties exist.

One main question: is there too much guidance in the EBT world? With EASA leading the industry in setting safe frameworks for EBT, some fear that it may become very complicated and overly prescriptive, with the risk of falling into the old trap of rigid, compliance-based training instead of performance-based (competency) training. The introduction of EBT/CBTA will therefore perhaps imply significant changes in the way oversight is done (e.g., performance-based oversight principles) to mitigate such a devolution of CBTA principles.

For some countries, cultural background may undermine grading and effective feedback. The solution here might be to accept a prescriptive CBTA initially, and slowly shift to a performance-based program as experience and confidence grows (similar to the mixed-EBT approach).

EBT for small operators is another issue. Does it make sense to go through the heavy paperwork for an operator with only two or five airplanes? While it may seem attractive to keep it simple, it might be better to make an effort at the beginning instead of fixing problems later, especially when it comes to implementing core principles of CBTA and performance-based training.

Academies are, contrary to airlines, looking for more guidance in CBTA, especially in the realm of practical flight training. It is expected that this guidance will be developed as experience from recurrent (EBT) training trickles down to ab initio and type-rating training.

Training device manufacturers need to develop instructor operating stations (IOS) adapted to EBT/CBTA training and scenarios, facilitating the integration of dynamic, competency-based syllabi into the IOS.

Overall, much work still to be done: ensure that EBT fundamentals remain understood and in place in expanding regulations, find solutions for small operators, adapt simulators to better assist instructors in CBTA, and close the gaps in the training pipeline running from ATOs to airline operators.

Come and participate in the CAT Leader Forum webinar that will discuss with industry leaders all these aspects.

Join us on 27th May where our experts present the working group summary on Evidence-Based Training, corresponding regulatory guidance, key insights, and recommendations, and conclude with an open Q&A session. Register here.

About the series:
Earlier this year, Civil Aviation Training (CAT) magazine, held a Heads of Training online meeting to discuss the “HoT” topics facing the airline training community in Europe. CAT recognizes the need to continue this discussion as it is of utmost importance to our industry. With a select group of stakeholders, we will further address the six critical matters on the regulatory and airline horizon in a series of workshops and webinars.

 
Some of these topics have been with us for multiple years; others are more recent or have become more disruptive to airline training because of the pandemic.

Subject matter experts invited by CAT will discuss these topics in greater depth via a series of working groups. Each session will focus on understanding an individual topic in greater depth, assessing the impact on the industry, and raising awareness or recommending a course of action.

The output of these workshops will be showcased in a series of interactive thought-leadership webinars open to the entire airline training community. 

Places are limited to 300.

Halldale members are guaranteed a place, along with all post-event recordings and full reports. To become a Halldale member click here.

Halldale would like to offer all airline personnel complimentary membership to the Halldale.com website.  Please email members@halldale.com to obtain your complimentary access code.