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ATC Training Q1 '25 Review
Entry posted by Adam Arkley in ATC Training ·
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Well good morning! It’s been a while, hasn’t it?
Q1 flashed by in a heartbeat and as I start to write this, I have just finished and submitted my quarterly report to the Region. The report commonly provides a foundation for the basis of my quarterly updates to you, but this time, we have rather a lot to talk about. Strap in, this will be a long ride.
Regular Statistics
As ever, a quick overview of progress within the division. We are, of course, aware of the recent changes in a number of training groups. After a long and gratefully received service, Fraser has stepped down from TG Heathrow to see the return of John Batten to the ATC Training Team. Mr. Lefevre is no longer TGI APP and the post remains vacant - please come and speak with either myself or Will if you have any interest in the post whatsoever. Finally, Messrs Buckley and Taylor find themselves as TGI TWR and ENR respectively. All of these new appointments have hit the ground running and I am grateful for their support.
It is fair to say we’ve seen things slow down a little this Q1 compared to Q1 2024 immediately following my appointment. We had a runaway quarter last year with some highly impressive numbers. This quarter wasn’t quite so good in some places but on par in others. To look at some numbers:
TGNC performed 186 mentoring sessions this quarter, down from 220 in Q1 last year. We processed 21 rating upgrades in the quarter, down from 41 in Q1 last year.
TG TWR performed 102 mentoring sessions this quarter, up from 99 in Q1 last year. We processed six rating upgrades, down from nine in Q1 last year.
TG APP performed 58 mentoring sessions, down from 97 in Q1 last year. We processed only one rating upgrade, down from five in Q1 last year.
TG ENR performed 60 mentoring sessions, up from 42 in Q1 last year. We processed one rating upgrade, equal to one from Q1 last year.
As ever, statistics are subject to some interpretation. It is obviously disappointing to see our TG APP numbers reduce so significantly and I’ll work with Will to try to understand why.
With the Roster update at the end of Q1 this year, we removed 16 people from the S2 waiting list, three from the S3 waiting list and none at C1. In Q4 2024, we removed 30 from the S2 waiting list six from the S3 waiting list. It seems like the roster is having the desired effect and we’re retaining active controllers in the main.
The current waiting lists are as follows;
S1: 785 up from 770 in Q4.
S2: 101 up from 94 in Q4.
S3: 47 up from 33 in Q4.
C1: 15 up from 13 in Q4.
There are several observations to be made here. I need to go away and do some study on the rate at which we’re seeing new members join the S1 waiting list at the moment, but based on my regular observations, I think that the rate has increased. I’ll make a second comment on the S1 waiting list shortly.
At S2, my perception is that the increase in the waiting list size is owing to the good work that TGNC are doing. Whilst the waiting list might be going up at S1 and the number of rating upgrades processed is significantly down from this time last year, it’s up from Q4 2024 - we issued 12 rating upgrades in Q424 but 21 in Q125. Accordingly, the throughput there is now having a knock-on effect in TG TWR. Mr. Buckley is still getting his feet under the table in TWR but the TG is a hive of activity and we’ll need to see how things go.
At C1, the list might be going up but this is an indicator of the performance of TG APP in 2024. We issued 16 S3s throughout 2024 - a 160% increase on 2023. What’s important for us to highlight is that this quarter, we issued a C1 training place to a student that passed their S3 less than a year before. The list might be going up, but TG ENR is performing well and I look forward to their continued success.
Technology Changes
Crucially, many of these statistics were brought to you by some statistical work that our lovely colleagues in Tech have provided for us over the past quarter-and-a-bit. I’m very grateful for their support, with particular mention to @Callum Axon recently who has been an absolute star for us.
We’ll be seeing further technological change soon. I have made a number of requests of our colleagues in Tech which will trickle through when they find time and will, of course, be prioritised across requests from other departments. There is one change which I am sure will cause some excitement.
As of the 2nd April, we now have a ‘proper’ waiting list for TGNC. We had a waiting list previously, but held in CTS whereas our other waiting lists are held in Core. The net effect of this is threefold:
- Firstly, people on the list can now see their own position on the waiting list. The date is inaccurate if you joined the waiting list before the 2nd April, but is accurate otherwise. Follow this link to see: https://www.vatsim.uk/mship/waiting-lists
- Secondly, we can now more easily remove people from the waiting list if they wish. The most common reason for this happening is people leaving VATSIM UK to transfer to another division, but occasionally, people come to us and say they can’t train for whatever reason.
- Thirdly, which is kind of an extension of the second, we’re now able to have much greater accuracy of the waiting list. Let me explain.
TGNC Waiting List
This week's change to the waiting list was born of an epiphany that I had. A friend of mine reached out to me pleased to report that their friend had been offered a place at a seminar. I raised an eyebrow. Whilst this was indeed good news, it didn’t make sense - I know the prospective controller in question and I had recently seen their place in the list. I looked their name up and my jaw nearly hit the floor.
We’ve invited someone to a seminar that was 160th in the waiting list at the time.
Inquisitive as ever, I asked my colleagues in TGNC what was happening. They explained the following;
- The waiting list in CTS doesn’t show anyone who is waiting. It shows anyone who is a member of TGNC in the order that they joined.
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That means we show a whole host of people that we shouldn’t:
- Anyone who has been through a seminar and is on a buffer list
- Anyone who has started practical training
- Anyone who is waiting for an exam
- Anyone who has passed an exam but not yet been administratively removed from the training group
- There was, at the time, no way to remove someone from the list shown in CTS
This is brilliant news, but we need to understand it. Firstly, a statement:
The waiting list is not 785 people long. However, it’s also not 785-160 people long. Let me explain.
Yes, we’re inviting someone who is around 160th in the list to a seminar. But that doesn’t mean that all 160 people before them are in training in some way, shape or form. A good chunk of those people fall into a number of categories:
- They’ve not yet passed the CTS theory exam
- They’ve not responded to an invitation and have been skipped for the next
- They’re in training but have not yet been removed
- They’ve notified us that they’re not available to attend a seminar and will be held for the next
Over time, we’ll come to a ‘more accurate’ reading of the waiting list and we’ll know where we really stand… For now, just know that the list is not 785 people long!
Department Initiatives
As ever, the department is working on a few initiatives. To spare this being a longer-running blog post than it needs to be, I’ll summarise them briefly below:
- S1 Mentors: We recently learned that S1s can now start Sweatbox sessions! Crucially, for us as a division, this paves the way for us to start utilising some of our more experienced and capable S1 controllers in further mentoring. We’re exploring (this is NOT a fait accompli) whether or not we should introduce this, both for TGNC and Heathrow.
- Syllabus and Grading Criteria Review: We’re continuing to review the syllabi and grading criteria for each training group. I’m starting with TG APP because I’m closest to it and I think that we can reduce the amount of writing that our mentors need to do. Crucially though, we want to ensure that progression through the grading criteria in a report is consistent between mentors and that it aligns with the exam criteria - which should also be consistent between examiners. We’re also looking to introduce a syllabus at Heathrow to ensure consistency of training for those who look to undertake an endorsement there.
- Supplementary Training: At a very high level, we’re starting to consider how we can provide supplementary training to controllers. That might be a deeper exploration of Route Checking (!), non-standard approaches like SRAs or procedural approaches, better training for Oceanic or any number of other initiatives.
- Moodle Team: In support of the above, we are planning to introduce a Moodle Team. This will be a group of trusted, rated individuals who will be asked to support the team in ensuring that our existing Moodle content is accurate and appropriately reflects updates across ATC Training and Operations, or to support the creation of new Moodle content. We’ll introduce more specific plans on this Coming Soon (™).
- Guide to Sweatbox: We are well into the process of creating a Guide to Sweatbox with the aim to give mentors the tools and confidence to run sessions on it and explore the benefits of mentoring in a controlled environment. There's a good group of contributors working on this at the moment, but more help is always welcome - please speak directly to Will if this interests you
Other Administration
By way of other administration, just a few small tidbits:
I haven’t closed the surveys I previously advertised for responses yet, but I am starting to look over the statistics. For reasons of propriety, I will present them to the DSG before publicly but there are some interesting and obvious trends in there.
I recently became aware of some confusion and impropriety around ‘over the shoulder’ (OTS) sessions for prospective mentors and want to provide some clarity. Anyone who is interested in becoming a mentor or examiner can request an OTS session. Both the mentor/examiner(s) and the student must agree. Crucially, however, the person observing the mentoring session must have no input into the session. A recent example reached me whereby the observer had been encouraged by the mentor to provide feedback - this isn’t appropriate and should not happen.
Finally, a comment on transparency. There is a lot in the blog post, because there’s a lot going on and we want to talk about it. But the things that I talk about don’t always necessarily address the comments or questions that you might have. I think that people might not believe me when I say that our door is always open. We had what I think was a very productive conversation with a number of community members in recent weeks and I’m very open to having more such conversations. I’ve also asked Ben that May’s town hall be ATC Training focussed again - it’s been a while since the last one and it’s right that we make ourselves available to speak with people. In the meantime, I am always happy to answer questions, either in comments to this post, by DM or in a chinwag - just let me know.
My thanks as ever go to my team who devote countless hours in support of the division, alongside all of the examiners and mentors across ATC Training that make what we do possible. Your help is, as ever appreciated.
Until next time,
Adam
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