Share:


A comprehensive analysis of competency and training perspectives among air traffic controllers

    Ertan Çinar Affiliation
    ; Arif Tuncal Affiliation

Abstract

The aim of the study was to examine air traffic controllers’ perspectives on competency, performance, and training. Analysing data from 182 participants, the results revealed a strong focus on competency with the controllers actively evaluating their skills. Notably, the experienced controllers (19+ years) displayed a heightened commitment to continuous learning, reflected in their higher participation in individual training and perception of its value for their career goals and adaptation to the evolving aviation industry. Competency-based training programs also received positive feedback across experience levels, highlighting their potential effectiveness. Moreover, training was universally perceived as key to performance throughout careers. These results highlighted the importance of fostering a culture of continuous learning within air traffic control (ATC) communities. Aviation authorities can support this by providing diverse training opportunities, including individual and competency-based programs. Future research should continue investigating the impact of technological advancements and AI/machine learning on ATC competencies, the effectiveness of competency-based training programs, and the role of individual training in competency development, ultimately ensuring the vital role of air traffic controllers in aviation safety.

Keyword : air traffic controller, aviation, competency, training, performance

How to Cite
Çinar, E., & Tuncal, A. (2024). A comprehensive analysis of competency and training perspectives among air traffic controllers. Aviation, 28(2), 54–63. https://doi.org/10.3846/aviation.2024.21501
Published in Issue
May 28, 2024
Abstract Views
596
PDF Downloads
453
Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

References

Berge, Z., Verneil, M., Berge, N., Davis, L., & Smith, D. (2002). The increasing scope of training and development competency. Benchmarking: An International Journal, 9, 43–61. https://doi.org/10.1108/14635770210418579

Burnett, M., & Dutsch, J. V. (2006). Competency-based training and assessment center: Strategies, technology, process, and issues. Advances in Developing Human Resources, 8(2), 141–143. https://doi.org/10.1177/1523422305279687

Curran, V., Casimiro, L., Banfield, V., Hall, P., Lackie, K., Simmons, B., Tremblay, M., Wagner, S., & Oandasan, I. (2009). Research for interprofessional competency-based evaluation (RICE). Journal of Interprofessional Care, 23(3), 297–300. https://doi.org/10.1080/13561820802432398

Dattel, A. R., Henry, A., D’Souza, G., Zhang, T., Perini, R. L., Tagoe, B., Song, J. Y., Babin, A. K., & Lim, B. L. (2019). Analog and digital clock refresher training for improvement in identifying aviation traffic. In Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting (Vol. 63, No. 1, pp. 131–135). SAGE Publications. https://doi.org/10.1177/1071181319631163

Dattel, A. R., Wang, H., Padilla, C., Gao, P., Song, K., Zhang, Z., Henry, A. P., Zhang, T., & Agha, R. D. (2020). Using relevant time clock refresher training for improvement in identifying aviation traffic. In Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting (Vol. 64, No. 1, pp. 2023–2024). SAGE Publications. https://doi.org/10.1177/1071181320641490

Davis, C. M., Anderson, M. J., & Jagger, D. (1979). Competency: The what, why, and how of it. Physical Therapy, 59(9), 1088–1094. https://doi.org/10.1093/ptj/59.9.1088

Dmochowski, P. A., & Skorupski, J. (2019). A method of evaluating air traffic controller time workload. In Development of Transport by Telematics: 19th International Conference on Transport System Telematics, TST 2019, Selected Papers 19 (pp. 363–376). Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-27547-1_26

Ellis, P., & Abbott, J. (2011). Managing difficult people: Competence vs competency. Journal of Renal Nursing, 3(2), 88–92. https://doi.org/10.12968/jorn.2011.3.2.89

Fukada, M. (2018). Nursing competency: Definition, structure, and development. Yonago Acta Medica, 61(1), 001–007. https://doi.org/10.33160/yam.2018.03.001

Harris, C. A. (2021). Air traffic control specialists’ perceptions of simulation for developing job-related competencies. The University of West Florida.

Hlihel, F. B., Chater, Y., & Boumane, A. (2022). Maintenance 4.0 employees’ competencies: Systematic literature review. In 2022 2nd International Conference on Innovative Research in Applied Science, Engineering and Technology (IRASET) (pp. 1–14). IEEE. https://doi.org/10.1109/IRASET52964.2022.9737840

Jha, P. D., Bisantz, A. M., Parasuraman, R., & Drury, C. G. (2011). Air traffic controllers’ performance in advance air traffic management system: Part I – performance results. The International Journal of Aviation Psychology, 21(3), 283–305. https://doi.org/10.1080/10508414.2011.582456

Jopson, I. (2012). The role of air traffic control in improving aviation’s environmental performance. In O. Inderwildi & D. King, Energy, transport, & the environment: Addressing the sustainable mobility paradigm (pp. 469–478). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-2717-8_25

Kalbow, M. (2013). Does airbus training cope with the evolution of the new aircraft generation? In Proceedings of the 31st European Conference on Cognitive Ergonomics (pp. 1–1). ACM Digital Library. https://doi.org/10.1145/2501907.2505350

Karpagam, K., & Sujatha, R. (2020). Competency development – A literature review. Solid State Technology, 63(2), 8335–8341.

Kearns, S. K., Mavin, T. J., & Hodge, S. (2017). Competency-based education in aviation: Exploring alternate training pathways. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315563220

Keller, J., Mendonca, F., Cutter, J., Suckow, M., & Dillman, B. (2020). Justification and development of competencies to transform a collegiate aviation flight program. The Journal of Competency‐Based Education, 5(3), Article e01216. https://doi.org/10.1002/cbe2.1216

Kesedzic, I., Bozek, J., Rados, M., Popovic, S., & Cosic, K. (2020). Air traffic control competencies measurements based on functional near-infrared spectroscopy. In 2020 43rd International Convention on Information, Communication and Electronic Technology (MIPRO) (pp. 243–248). IEEE. https://doi.org/10.23919/MIPRO48935.2020.9245242

Kholostov, K. M., & Goroshko, I. V. (2022). Optimal planning of professional training for air traffic controllers. Russian Engineering Research, 42(1), 85–88. https://doi.org/10.3103/S1068798X22010087

Kmita, E. (2013). Professional competence of air traffic controller in the sphere of subject-activity approach. Edukacja-Technika-Informatyka, 4(1), 204–209. https://www.ceeol.com/search/article-detail?id=32034

Koh, E. T., Owen, W. L., Koh, E. T., & Owen, W. L. (2000). Descriptive research and qualitative research. In Introduction to nutrition and health research (pp. 219–248). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-1401-5_12

Kraut, J. M., Kiken, A., Billinghurst, S., Morgan, C. A., Strybel, T. Z., Chiappe, D., & Vu, K. P. L. (2011). Effects of data communications failure on air traffic controller sector management effectiveness, situation awareness, and workload. In G. Salvendy & N. J. Smith, Human Interface and the Management of Information. Interacting with Information. Human Interface. Lecture Notes in Computer Science (Vol. 6772, pp. 493–499). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-21669-5_58

Kusumalatha, D., & Gowda, N. (2020). Job competence of agricultural officers in Southern zone of Andhra Pradesh, India. International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences, 9(3), 2394–2398. https://doi.org/10.20546/ijcmas.2020.903.273

LeBleu, R., & Sobkowiak, R. (1995). New Workforce Competency Models getting the IS staff up to warp speed. Information Systems Management, 12(3), 7–12. https://doi.org/10.1080/07399019508962980

Malakis, S., & Kontogiannis, T. (2012). Refresher training for air traffic controllers: Is it adequate to meet the challenges of emergencies and abnormal situations? The International Journal of Aviation Psychology, 22(1), 59–77. https://doi.org/10.1080/10508414.2012.635127

Marmier, F., Varnier, C., & Zerhouni, N. (2006). Maintenance activities scheduling under competencies constraints. In 2006 International Conference on Service Systems and Service Management (Vol. 2, pp. 1217–1222). IEEE. https://doi.org/10.1109/ICSSSM.2006.320682

Mathur, A. (2012). Building a robust organisation through competency framework. The Indian Journal of Public Administration, 58(3), 451–454. https://doi.org/10.1177/0019556120120315

Nassaji, H. (2015). Qualitative and descriptive research: Data type versus data analysis. Language Teaching Research, 19(2), 129–132. https://doi.org/10.1177/1362168815572747

Ogbeide, G. (2008). A case study of restaurant training motivations and outcomes. Anatolia. An International Journal of Tourism and Hospitality Research, 19(1), 172–177. https://doi.org/10.1080/13032917.2008.9687063

Oprins, E. A. P. B., Burggraaff, E., & Roe, R. (2011). Analysis of learning curves in the on-the-job training of air traffic controllers. Ashgate Publishing Company.

Oprins, E., Burggraaff, E., & van Weerdenburg, H. (2006). Design of a competence-based assessment system for air traffic control training. The International Journal of Aviation Psychology, 16(3), 297–320. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327108ijap1603_4

Papathanassiou, N., Pistofidis, P., & Emmanouilidis, C. (2013). Competencies development and self-assessment in maintenance management e-training. European Journal of Engineering Education, 38(5), 497–511. https://doi.org/10.1080/03043797.2013.811475

Pilmannova, T., Hanakova, L., Socha, V., Freigang, M., & Schmidt, S. (2023). Student air traffic controllers’ performance under conditions of increased workload. In G. Praetorius, Ch. Sellberg, & R. Patriarca (Eds), Human Factors in Transportation. AHFE (2023) International Conference (Vol. 95, pp. 539–548). AHFE International. https://doi.org/10.54941/ahfe1003839

Rahman, S. A., Borst, C., van Paassen, M. M., & Mulder, M. (2016). Cross-sector transferability of metrics for air traffic controller workload. IFAC-PapersOnLine, 49(19), 313–318. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ifacol.2016.10.561

Read, J., & Knoch, U. (2009). Clearing the air: Applied linguistic perspectives on aviation communication. Australian Review of Applied Linguistics, 32(3), 21.1–21.11. https://doi.org/10.2104/aral0921

Rodrigues, S., Paiva, J. S., Dias, D., Aleixo, M., Filipe, R., & Cunha, J. P. S. (2018). A wearable system for the stress monitoring of air traffic controllers during an air traffic control refresher training and the trier social stress test: A comparative study. The Open Bioinformatics Journal, 11(1), 106–116. https://doi.org/10.2174/1875036201811010106

Shamsiev, Z. Z. (2022a). Organizational factors affecting the effectiveness of the educational process of training air traffic controllers. Heliyon, 8(11), Article e11801. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2022.e11801

Shamsiev, Z. Z. (2022b). Improving the process of training air traffic controllers based on the formation of an electronic educational environment. Journal of Airline Operations and Aviation Management, 1(2), 1–6. https://doi.org/10.56801/jaoam.v1i2.5

Sharf, R. S. (1979). A career development model. Journal of College Placement, 40(1), 43–49.

Shavelson, R. J. (2010). On the measurement of competency. Empirical Research in Vocational Education and Training, 2(1), 41–63. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03546488

Singh, G. (2014). Impact of training on job performance at diesel locomotive work. Journal of Management Research and Analysis, 1(1), 27–41.

Soldatov, S., Zasyad’ko, K., Bogomolov, A., Vonarshenko, A., & Solomka, A. (2018). Professionally important skills of air traffic controllers. Human Physiology, 44, 775–778. https://doi.org/10.1134/S0362119718070150

Stallman, R., Moran, K., Brenner, R., & Rahman, A. (2013). Swimming and water survival competence. In Drowning: Prevention, rescue, treatment (pp. 197–206). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-04253-9_30

Suzana, A., Wibowo, S. N., Rudiantono, Y., & Indrayanti, I. (2020). Measuring the effect of competence and training program on employees performance. In Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Accounting, Management and Entrepreneurship (ICAMER 2019) (pp. 25–28). Atlantis Press. https://doi.org/10.2991/aebmr.k.200305.007

Tabachnick, B. G., & Fidell, L. S. (2013). Using multivariate statistics (6th ed.). Allyn & Bacon.

Tiwari, R., Sharma, M., Singh, B., & Dutt, T. (2011). Impact of trainings on the gain in knowledge of the field veterinary professionals. Journal of Community Mobilization and Sustainable Development, 6, 112–116.

Urusova, Z. B., Kozlova, L. Y., & Elkanova, B. D. (2021). Competencies as the equivalents of the individual’s professional development. SHS Web of Conferences, 113, Article 00039. https://doi.org/10.1051/shsconf/202111300039

van Meeuwen, L. W., Brand-Gruwel, S., Kirschner, P. A., de Bock, J. J., & van Merriënboer, J. J. (2018). Fostering self-regulation in training complex cognitive tasks. Educational Technology Research and Development, 66, 53–73. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11423-017-9539-9

Wang, Y., & Ma, W. (2023). Analysis on the competence characteristics of controllers in the background of air traffic control system with manmachine integration. In International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction (pp. 264–275). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-35392-5_21

Westera, W. (2001). Competences in education: A confusion of tongues. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 33(1), 75–88. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220270120625

Whelan, L. (2006). Competency assessment of nursing staff. Orthopaedic Nursing, 25(3), 198–202. https://doi.org/10.1097/00006416-200605000-00008

Zhang, Y., & Jin, S. (2019). Research on the allocation of control position in domestic air traffic control units. IOP Conference Series: Materials Science and Engineering, 688(4), Article 044035. https://doi.org/10.1088/1757-899X/688/4/044035