Training Department Q1 2020
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Entry posted by Daniel Crookes in United Kingdom ·
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Afternoon Folks!
I cannot say that 2020 has been a very nice time for any of us so far, nor can we even begin to understand how some people are being affected by these terrible times. But what I can do, is reflect upon the amazing work that you have all made possible through your contributions as pilots, students, mentors, instructors, chief tea maker, you name it and I guarantee you will have helped somewhere.
ATC Training
We saw the beginning of the end for our Central Training System, and the end of the beginning for our new training management systems. All of our waiting lists have now been migrated over from google sheets to an in-house waiting list manager. Our new system completes all activity and hour requirement checks automatically, reducing the administrative burden on us ten fold. This new system also allows us to build a more accurate picture of our waiting times.
New OBS to S1 process. After around 6 months of hard work from our TGNC team we saw the implementation of S1 practical exams. These exams are founded on our goal of ensuring all controllers who leave our training system are as prepared as they can be, in order to enjoy the network to its full potential. Along with exams we have introduced a new S1 syllabus which has proven its effectiveness in a matter of weeks by providing all stakeholders in S1 training with a datum to work from.
The final substantial change so far this year was the introduction of our new marking criteria. A change to the marking criteria had been on the cards for several years and had seen many iterations. We decided to take inspiration from Bloom’s taxonomy when designing the new criteria - which hasn’t changed too much from our current system. As a result of this change, we issued a revision to all of our training syllabi to reflect the new criteria. The training syllabi are currently under review and we hope to have the revised S2 syllabus released by the end of Q2.
Pilot Training
Earlier last month VATSIM announced a restructuring of the current pilot rating system which would go live on June 1st. The new structure aims to emulate the structure of ‘real-world’ pilot training and increase consistency across all ATOs. More information about the new ratings can be found in my other post here.
Over the past 6 weeks a small team of our members have been working to complete the first of the four new ratings - the P1 PPL(A). Over 100 pages of new content and questions have been created and are now being imported into our e-Learning platform Moodle. We have just begun development of the P2 SEIR(A) and hope to be in a similar position to where we are with the P1 course in around 6 weeks. I will provide a more detailed update specifically related to the new pilot ratings next week as we pass the halfway point on Tuesday.
Whilst our current pilot training courses are on there way out, we have been maximising the throughput of our P1 (Online Pilot) rating course. So far this year we have trained 67 new pilots who have recently joined the network.
General Training
Over the past 8 weeks we have seen the largest increase in demand our training system has ever seen as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. In the past 7 weeks over 500 mentoring sessions have been conducted, and we are now training over 150 individual students. I still can’t quite believe how our mentoring team have responded to this increased demand, to say that I am grateful for all of your contributions would be a huge understatement. Thank you to everyone who has contributed this year so far, especially during these difficult times where there are thousands of people turning to VATSIM as a means of keeping themselves engaged - and hundreds of people wishing to engage in training.
Please stay safe, keep healthy, and remember - the most precious resource we all have, is time.
Thanks,
Dan ✈️
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