Earlier Comments on Technical Qualifcations
Where to start?
The ICAO 7192 course and Part A of the syllabus is intended to provide a technical background and a base of knowledge for Operations Staff. The technical section of the course is not and will not teach you to manage the movements of a fleet of aircraft. But, Part A will prepare you for the times when things go wrong and the technical side of our trade is needed.
Consider this:
Captain Scarlet flies for Airline A, he operates 3 sectors per day on a 6 on/3 off roster pattern. In a year he will operate 723 sectors.
Operations Officer Black also works for Airline A, he works a 4 on/4 off shift pattern and manages Operations Control for the airlines fleet of 5 aircraft each operating 6 sectors per day. In a year he will be responsible for the supervision of over 2500 sectors.
If a major problem occurs every 1000 sectors Black will see 2 a year, Captain Scarlet will see one every 2 years.
Captain Scarlet will have an ATPL and many years of experience to help him deal with the problem – why should Black not be trained to the same level, or at least a strong technical level.
Part B of 7192 deals with on the job training. Look at it this way, a pilot joins an airline with an ATPL, the airline gives him a type rating. Someone joins the same airline to work in Ops, he has the technical training 7192 specifies, it then becomes the airlines responsibility to train him on procedures and actions that are required for operational control and fleet management by that individual airline, procedures that will differ from airline to airline.
The technical training specified will serve to raise our profile with crews and better prepare our staff for the unexpected.