[Greetings and Personal Introduction]

I will start by introducing the JAA TO so you are familiar with who we are and what we do; then I will present our main perspective (as provider of REGULATORY training) on training needs, gaps, analysis and challenges. And I will conclude with an insight on how the JAA Training Organisation can assist organisations in identifying their training needs and gaps and - most importantly - analysing them for the ultimate goal of achieving effective aviation safety.

JAA TO has been established under the laws of the Netherlands as a non-profit Foundation. We are the Training Body of the European Civil Aviation Conference and also the first training organisation in Europe to become an ICAO Regional Training Center of Excellence. We are also an ICAO Trainair Plus full member and a member of their Steering Committee.

We provide mainly aviation safety regulatory training courses to an average of 12 thousand students per year. At present we have around 150 training courses in our portfolio, which are delivered all over the world including 15 regional locations. We have also assisted building more than 5 Aviation Training Academies around the world, the Gulf Center of Aviation Studies (GCAS) being an example. And we have also developed the first and only Integrated Training Management System for the effective and successful management of overall training activities; a system which we make available to our partners.

So let's talk about Training Needs and Gaps, the topic of this Session. Training needs and gaps can be identified in different ways. The reactive way, the proactive way, and the predictive way.

When new or amended regulations are coming up, the needs are usually identified in a proactive way, in which case Training is implemented before the implementation date. However we notice many cases of organisations who train their staff reactively, when the regulations have already been in force and it is noted that the staff is not competent to work with these regulations (yet). Unfortunatelly Incidents and accidents are usually a trigger for implementation of training, in which case the identification of the training needs is done in a reactive way. An example we have experienced is an organisation which had been blacklisted and immediately contacted JAA TO to train 300 inspectors in three days, which was nonetheless done successfully. However, training can - and in our opinion - MUST be identified in a predictive way, which is something that can be done - for example - through the process of evaluating existing training being implemented in the organisation. In the next slides I will focus on identification of training needs and gaps through the Training Evaluation process.

When evaluating existing training, needs and gaps can certainly be identified. For example, it can be identified that course materials are missing or need to be updated (and as a consequence the course structure too, for instance its duration may be needed to be shortened or extended). It can also be identified that existing training may need to be delivered through a different methodology, for various reasons (personnel work schedule and budgetary constraints, to name a couple). In these cases, the need can be identified for delivering existing training via eLearning, or complementing existing classroom training by an additional module in form of webinar. But most importantly, it is mainly via the feedback received (given by both trainers or trainees) that needs and gaps can be identified. I will focus on this last point in the next slide.

This is how JAA TO collects feedback.

Once the training needs and gaps have been identified, they need to be analysed. We’d like to focus on this as one of the main challenges in achieving effective safety: Training Needs Analysis. And I will draw attention to 2 cornerstones of this challenge:

First of all, and needless to say, the needs and gaps must have been properly identified as previously discussed. It is important to limit the reactive way of identification as much as possible and focus on optimizing the proactive and predictive ways. Secondly, there must be proper methods, tools and techniques chosen to perform the analysis.

The JAA TO has developed two training courses, one entitled Risk Assessment Training, and another Training Needs Analysis Course. Both are competency-based and aimed at the knowledge, skills and attitudes required for an effective assessment of risks and analysis of training needs. But we have also developed, in-house, the Integrated Training Management System, which we can make available upon request to our partners.

Basically, the ITMS is a fully integrated system specifically designed for the successful management of training activities and qualifications.

What I’d like to emphasize about the ITMS is that it has a module for the optimal manaement of recurrency and qualification of trainees/staff.

It is not only an integrated system but it is also fully customizeable It is not only an integrated system but it is also fully customizeable. A start-up version would be ready for input of various data – Data which will eventually become crucial in the identification of training needs and gaps, which can be easily analysed with the proper system tools.

Because it is secure and stable as well as full time available, the ITMS enables the centralization of all data related to the training of your staff, be it in-house, with external providers or else. And it is due to this centralization combined with powerful functions that an effective Training Needs Analysis can occur through the TNA Module in the system.

We have discussed with various clients and partners the need for a proper efficient automated way of performing training needs analysis in an effective way for the ultimate goal of aviation safety. The ITMS is, as far as we have researched, the only system available for the aviation community focused specifically on TRAINING management. We would be more than pleased if you choose for implementing it in your organisation.