Originally Posted by
sunnySA
There is no single problem, no single solution. Unfortunately Airservices sees training as a cost and not as an investment. They try to do things on the cheap eg not paying accommodation for ATC trainees at the College. This is an organisation that has trained their own staff for 50 or 60 years, sometimes in large numbers. You'd think they would've refined their processes but no, they chop and change. Changes to their selection processes, changes to where and how they trained (Melbourne, Brisbane, UTOL, Bath and now Christchurch).
If you stop training for a period, 6 months, 12 months then you erode your capacity to train, the corporate knowledge drifts away and you have to re-start. Run a minimum number of courses each and every year, and either add an extra 2 or 4 to the course once in a while, or add an another course once in a while.
.
In the early 1990's the Public Works Committee looked at the difference in the (then) CAA and RAAF training for ATC. The findings may surprise some . Course photographs for the RAAF school in 1997 and 1998 show a significant number of course members were civilians. A possible solution to a problem nearly three decades later?
Organisations learn from bitter experience (but often fail to remember when it reoccurs) that it takes a lot longer than the period of no training to effectively recommence training after a pause, even if you keep a skeleton training staff on line. ATC is certainly no exception.
The other fact I'd offer from history and experience is that recruiting a hundred ATC trainees is not going to fix a staff shortfall in under 5-6 years.
Gne