GAT started the rapid development of a wide range of courses to assist Member States during the pandemic to mitigate the risks associated to its activities. The main mitigation activities implemented include the following:
a) TRAINAIR PLUS Membership: The TRAINAIR PLUS Programme (TPP), ICAO’s network of training organizations and partners, is implemented in 70 ICAO Member States. TPP membership is composed of 111 organizations, six of which joined in 2020. Members develop and deliver ICAO-recognized training packages listed in ICAO’s comprehensive GAT course catalogue.
b) Assessments of Training Organizations: GAT has conducted 29 assessments, which include assessments of new TPP Members and reassessments of existing Members.
c) Course Development: In total, 38 ICAO Training Packages (ITPs) were developed or translated in the reporting period, which includes 27 virtual classroom courses, five face-to-face classroom courses, and six online courses. In addition, three RTCE ITPs, 18 STPs, and 8 PTPs were developed by TPP Members and subsequently recognized by ICAO.
d) Deliveries of ICAO-recognized training packages: TPP Members continuously benefit from newly developed training packages and have access to 314 courses in the GAT catalogue. In 2020, GAT managed the delivery of 319 ICAO recognized training packages, benefiting approximately 10 534 trainees globally. Trainees benefiting from online and blended Courses numbered 5 004.
e) Partnerships: ICAO and the University of the Witwatersrand (WITS University), South Africa, formalized an agreement on the delivery of the “Aviation Training Needs Analysis (ATNA) Programme”. ICAO and the New Buckinghamshire University (Bucks) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for the delivery of a Master of Science, MSc, in Aviation Security. An MOU between ICAO and CAA International (CAAi), a wholly owned subsidiary of the UK Civil Aviation Authority, was signed for the development and delivery of the “CAA Preparation for restarting operations during a pandemic”.
f) ICAO Aviation Security Training Centre (ASTC) Network activities: ICAO aviation security training is one of the activities coordinated by Implementation Support and Development – Security Programme (ISD-SEC) in ATB. In 2020, ISD-SEC managed the delivery of seven aviation security training courses, six aviation security workshops and one ICAO aviation security instructor certification session. Among the seven courses, two Air Cargo and Mail Security Courses were conducted virtually to meet surging demand from the Asia and Pacific (APAC) region.
g) Virtual Events: GAT held a webinar to inform TPP Members about GAT’s online and virtual training activities in response to the challenges posed by the pandemic. GAT launched the ICAO Compliance Training Week during which the Managing Compliance with ICAO SARPs Course was delivered simultaneously in three languages, English, French and Spanish. Additionally, GAT hosted a Training Panel during the virtual ICAO Global Symposium on the Implementation of Innovation in Aviation.
h) Training Professional Qualification Process: In 2020, 46 new instructors were qualified, which brings the total number of ICAO qualified instructors to 170, with 67 of them are trained to teach ITPs in a virtual classroom. To support the development of ICAO-recognized training packages, a total of 28 ISD validators and 43 Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) are qualified for the methodology and content validation respectively, including four ISD validators and 12 SMEs added to the roster.
i) Learning Management System (LMS): GAT migrated 16 existing online ITPs and two online Partnership Training Packages (PTPs) into the LMS. In response to the challenges during the pandemic, seven new online ITPs were developed in collaboration with Bureaus and some of them were considered as Key Competency Programmes (KCP) to support the implementation of Implementation Packages (iPacks). With the transition of traditional classroom courses to a virtual classroom format, four virtual classroom courses are also hosted on LMS to facilitate the learning experience. Twenty-eight courses are hosted on the LMS with 3 728 registrations, and 2 983 trainees enrolled, while 2 324 e-Certificates were issued upon successful completion of courses through the LMS. The total number of participants registered on other external LMS for 2020 is 1 368.
j) To support the aviation community in
Least Developed Countries (LDCs), a preferential pricing was introduced between 1 September and 31 December 2020 to provide greater access to online training, from both governmental and non-governmental organizations. In 2020, 361 trainees from 34 States across all six ICAO regions have benefited from this promotion.
k) GAT contributes to the development of the training components of iPacks. Specific training has been incorporated in the following iPacks:
