Annex 18, Chapter 10 requires that "initial and recurrent dangerous goods training programmes shall be established and maintained in accordance with the Technical Instructions". The Technical Instructions require that recurrent training and assessment must be provided within 24 months of previous training and assessment to ensure that competency has been maintained.
Difficulties in obtaining or providing recurrent training and assessment at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic led many States to issue temporary extensions to the period of validity for dangerous goods training. A quick reference guide on alleviations related to recurrent dangerous goods training was published to assist States that needed to grant them. Alleviations were established as interim measures to support continued operations during the initial stages of the pandemic, but they cannot sustain safe operations indefinitely. Accordingly, the Council Aviation Recovery Taskforce (CART) formulated the following recommendation:
Recommendation 12:
States should put in place the necessary measures to mitigate risks associated with prolonged regulatory alleviations and should not extend alleviations (both core and extended COVID-19 Contingency Related Differences (CCRDs)) beyond 31 March 2021, unless circumstances dictate otherwise. In addition, States are encouraged to facilitate access to medical and training facilities, including flight simulation training devices used for flight crew (national and foreign) to maintain their certifications, recency of experience and proficiency.
Many States have found ways to address difficulties in obtaining or providing dangerous goods training and assessment during the pandemic and have already removed alleviations. As States return to compliance with the SARPs, the objective of dangerous goods training and assessment should be kept in mind, which is to ensure personnel are competent to perform any function for which they are responsible prior to performing any of these functions. The type of training provided to achieve this objective is not prescribed in Annex 18 or the Technical Instructions. While physical distancing practices or closure of workspaces may make classroom training difficult, other means of training and assessment or combination of training and assessment methods can be used to achieve the training objective. Examples include online courses, webinars, virtual classrooms, and on-the-job training.
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