CAA ATC Training at Launceston

The University’s Centre for Air Traffic Services was developed in response to a Federal Cabinet decision in early 1988. Launceston was selected as the venue, and the then Tasmanian State Institute of Technology incorporated an Air Traffic Control and Flight Service syllabus with academic strands to offer a Diploma.

The Centre comprises an $8. 5m Ferranti Air Traffic Services radar simulator located in a $2. 8m building on the campus of the University. ATC simulation is provided by CAA ATC instructors attached to the Centre. Theory classes are predominantly provided by ex-CAA Air Traffic Services personnel who have tertiary qualifications in education and who have joined the staff of the University.

More and more educational activities are being described as non traditional. Nursing has reached for the sky and has the potential to bring about major changes in its image. No longer “Florence Nightingales” but better educated persons who will want to be compensated appropriately for their professionalism. Aquaculture has moulded well into a tertiary institution because of its emphasis on research as well as education. Aviation became academically oriented because of several variables, one of which is that ATC personnel make wonderful traffic separators, but doubtful managers.

There was a great deal of reluctance to the change by CAA management and therefore a lack of support for the Government initiative. A number of variables appear responsible. Those who hold formal power rarely wish to change. There may be apathy, or an inability to conceptualise change. The provision of a new curriculum was seen by many as expensive in time, money and labour. It appeared that there were different networks within the Authority who wished to suppress those who would foster change.

Many believed that the training of ATCs would be hijacked by the academics. This is understandable because of the emphasis given to academic education in the 70s and 80s and reflected a period when the learning of the ‘ATC craft’ was developed ‘within the family’. Therefore there was little impetusto promote personal development through academic study. There has been a load imbalance placed on the University in the building of attitudes to the training of future ATC staff for Australia. The provision of tertiary studies to aviation students was partly initiated and guided by the Federal Government, but its messages have been in competition to some within CAA who see tertiary study as a non necessity to a skills based environment.

Nevertheless there was support from within the ATS staff associations who saw that the lack of tertiary study would leave its mark on the status and professional psyche of their members who were being denied management roles in other public service and CAA fields. The lack of tertiary qualifications had made it difficult for the profession to realize its potential. As a result staff were straining without success to break out of their bonds, but generally were not equipped should they do so.

Prior to the move to Launceston, Air Traffic Controllers and Flight Service Officers were trained on different courses at the CAA training school at Henty House in Melbourne. Air Traffic Controllers with prior aviation experience, such as ex-pilots, underwent a 27 week intensive short term course, while those with no prior experience were given a two year course. The Flight Service Officer underwent a course of about 29 weeks. Each of these courses were characterised by a significant amount of theoretical and practical field work.

Events prior to 1988 made it clear that if ATC training was to survive and flourish in the years ahead, significant adaptation and transformations would be demanded of those who would design, develop and deliver these educational programmes. No longer could the CAA carry on as usual. New technology, new needs and urgencies of the aviation industry due to deregulation created demands that had to be met in different ways.

The commencement of the Air Traffic Services course at the University of Tasmania introduced a new era in the training of Air Traffic Controllers by combining each of these three courses into a single two calendar year tertiary level course. The course was intended to significantly advantage the CAA and the flying public in a number of ways.

First, University graduates would be trained for the first time as both Air Traffic Controllers and Flight Service Officers. They would be able to do both jobs.

Second, the CAA would gain cheaper overall training costs through efficiencies introduced by the University.

Third, the CAA would not have to employ graduates. They would have for the first time the option to employ.

Fourth, the CAA would gain flexibility in how they use their employees. They would be able to do more than one job.

Finally and most importantly, the CAA would for the first time gain a constant supply of graduates.

Because they would be able to make more productive use of training time than had been the case in the past, the University also believes that the CAA would gain a better product than it had previously been getting.

Since February 1989 five courses began the two years of study. Over 200 students have commenced the programme, with 149 graduating. The ATC Diploma course at Launceston aimed at adapting graduates for availability in other work environments besides traffic processing by providing management, computing, physics, electronics and other subjects which would contribute to the development of the whole person, as opposed to the previous method where a narrow preoccupation with vocational matters was prevalent.

During 1992 the Centre commenced upgrading for up to 260 Flight Service Officers and Airways Data Systems Officers who are converting to ATC via a 27 week Centre training programme.

The education of aviation students whose ages range from 17 to 45 is and has been a diverse and complex process. The diversity is seen not only in the kinds of subjects and priorities given to their education, but in the kinds of people who provide the instruction for them. Simulator instructors seconded to the Centre represent a wide range of instructing and non-instructing backgrounds, and they differ in their training and experiences. The great variation in instructors and their preparation can be explained.

There is no comprehensive training available for these peo- ple all of whom are not professional educators. The Instructors have little formal training in teaching techniques, but their knowledge of the subject matter is sound. The failure by CAA to recognise the Instructor’s needs for a formal place in an appropriate education system has prevented the focus on training preparation of certified personnel. Since the key to instructional success rests with these people it is imperative that they perform at their most effective level possible.

The only training a Simulator Instructor receives is a one week instructional methods course. As a result ATS Simulator Instructors seconded to train ATS students at the Centre in the practical aspects of separating aircraft, themselves working in the new tertiary area for the first time, have had to take on the role of educators as opposed to trainers, and had to become better qualified themselves. Generally the Instructors are seconded to the Centre for a maximum of two years, although this may change to a more rapid rotation.

Until the ATC course moved to Launceston, it was com- monly assumed that Instructors had a natural flair for organising or teaching, and did not require formal (apart from the one week instructional methods course) training, or at least not the sort that necessitated attending regular courses. But the drive was on for professional instructors, professionally competent as possible and to create a professional identity. For an ATC Instructor at the Centre specialised training knowledge and unique skills are obviously required. There is a need for the overall planning of the Instructor’s recruitment, training, education and development. A location such as the University of Tasmania has a suitable range of opportunities and subjects available. The University offers a teo year Diploma of Teaching (TAFE and Vocational), a Bachelor and Masters degree in education and is an excellent vehicle for simulator instructors. The difference between simulation instruction at the Centre and that of the past as practiced by CAA is that one instructor working closely and cooperatively with one student can be the key to significant behaviour changes. The individualised nature of instructional processes with the ability to provide empathy, initiative and direction is very positive. The CAA require training in defensive traffic separation, and any errors in a student’s performance should be corrected immediately so that it did not become a future habit.

Training of ATC students in the simulator cannot develop or maintain its quality unless there was research to link academic knowledge and the field experience (both present and perceived). Training and research is necessary to the building and continuous development of the Air Traffic Services profession. If this does not occur there will be a separation of knowledge and skills. Therefore, there is a need for a movement of knowledge both ways between ATC field staff and the educating institution. To do this, professional knowledge needs to be discussed freely at all levels and a sense of awareness created that the educating authority is available to all by way of communication, visits and exchanges of staff.

The University of Tasmania is an institution of a somewhat different ideology with a clearly different response in a com- munity which has quite another social, historical and geographical background to other CAA training environments. There is almost a cultural and social frontier between CAA and the University. The two fields of education/training merit different attentions. The University sought to establish a national identity for ATC students at a tertiary institution, not to continue some form of neo-colonialism that CAA had left behind.

At present instructors can be considered as a professional group in a loose way. They have acquired by study, experience, knowledge and discipline a degree of expertise, but they are not socially recognised as educators.

By providing staff for a longer term, requiring some form of professional teaching qualification in advance or being acquired, would allow the maximum autonomy to be given to the responsible people.

Rob O’Hara has been a Senior Lecturer at the University of Tasmania forthepast41/2 years. He was previously employed for 18 years by the Civil Aviation Authority in Air Traffic Services. He has a Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology and a Master of Education degree. His current interests are in the development of university degree programmes for staff in the aviation industry.