New training vision

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CONTRIBUTERS to the fourth Regional TRAINAIR Coordination Conference in Cairo were taken by the Egyptian proposal to establish a new training programme capable to provide airlines with well-qualified personnel, says Amirah Ibrahim.

Attended by delegates from 40 airlines, the conference took place in Cairo 27-30 October to discuss a new formula for a training programme of their personnel. TRAINAIR is an International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) programme that was established with the goal of improving the safety and efficiency of air transport through the establishment and maintenance of high standards of training for aviation personnel on a global basis.

Civil aviation training centres face serious challenges, to meet an increasing demand for well- qualified personnel in a wide range of disciplines and emerging technologies. At the same time, the demands placed on many civil aviation training institutions are greater than the resources available. A basic premise of the programme is, therefore, to enhance the cost-efficiency of training for the participating states in light of today's economic realities.

The conference was hosted by EgyptAir Training Centre which contributed with a distinguished paper displaying a new vision to develop the programme. According to Sameh Shalash, Course Development Unit manager, EgyptAir Training Centre, the purpose of the paper is to highlight the need for an international programme that focuses on upgrading the performance of organisations.

"Over the last decade, several performance improvement techniques have been employed by organisations seeking to improve their results. It is for each organisation to decide which technique to use to best meet its own needs," Shalash stated.

"But we have to take into consideration that achieving a quality standard or using a self- assessment framework is not an end in itself. That is why quality standards generally apply on a time-limited basis and self-assessment should be conducted at regular intervals to encourage organisations to carry on their journey from initial recognition and self-assessment towards continuous improvement."

The proposed programme promotes performance measurement, the proper application of different performance improvement techniques and problem solving tools to enhance safety and business performance of the various civil aviation bodies. The aim is to continually update and improve safety and business standards.

"We will not be surprised if we discovered that the high performance airports -- the top 200 as ranked by Airports Council International, 2000ACI, in terms of total passengers for 1999 -- apply the same performance improvement techniques but with different percentages."

ICAO's TRAINAIR central unit monitors the development of all courses through regular reports and technical support missions. The programme includes 49 member airlines representing 44 states. Members of the programme develop training packages to an international methodological standard, established by TRAINAIR. As the materials are prepared using the same process and standards they can easily be used by all members of the programme. An integral part of the programme is an international training resource sharing system administered by ICAO. The sharing system is highly efficient for members as they acquire many of the courses they need through the sharing system and need only prepare a limited number of courses themselves.

Shalash warned that to achieve the vision of the ICAO technical cooperation bureau there was a need for another progamme that promotes the proper application of performance improvement techniques used by high performance civil aviation bodies.

"The suggested goal for the programme is to improve the safety and efficiency of air transport through qualifying civil aviation organisations for the proper application of performance improvement techniques," he indicated.