ATC Students Train Virtually with New AKO Course

A virtual Airways Knowledge Online (AKO) ICAO 051 Air Traffic Services (ATS) Licensing Subjects course is in full swing for a group of 14 Air Traffic Control (ATC) students from the Pacific and Middle East since global border and travel restrictions continue to disrupt face-to-face training. The 16-week course is being delivered by an Airways International Ltd (AIL) instructor based in the AKO Immersive Technologies studio at Airways’ training facilities in Christchurch, New Zealand. Students on the course are learning specific theoretical skills as base knowledge prior to further simulation and on-the-job training.

Ten students from the Solomon Islands, Tonga and Papua New Guinea are recipients of a Manaaki New Zealand Scholarship, sponsored by the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade and organised by Skills Consulting Group. The remaining four students are from Bahrain, Saudi Arabia in the Middle East, and New Zealand.

The AKO virtual academy was launched in December 2020 to deliver training to aviation students remotely. The new ATC course is the third of its kind to be run through AKO since the academy launched, and the 19th virtual AKO course in total.