Role of Training Manager

If you are running an EASA 147 school, almost certainly you will require a training manager. In fact the post of training manager can be one of the positions that need to be approved by the Department of Civil Aviation like FAA or CAA.

The roles can be as follows: (some are not written here)

1. To manage training resources.

In order to conduct an approved courses, there are a number of resources required..

a. Trainers. - Trainers or instructors are required to conduct the course. The authority such as the DCA or CAA is concerned about the quality of the instructor and listed the requirement in the relevant documents.

There are areas where the school has to be concerned... the qualifying of the trainers/instructors and the continuous training. The qualifying process involved the course if instructional technique and the practical training.

b. Notes and training materials.

For 147 approve training school under EASA, the syllabus for training is stipulated under the part 66 document. Based on the syllabus, the course notes and presentation material are written

The other training materials required are the presentation material which are likely to be powerpoint.

c. Assessment materials

The approved 147 school may play the role of examination authority, like what CAA was before. To be awarded the approval to become an approved examination center, there are a number of criteria that must be satisfied which include ... sufficient questions banks, qualified examiners and have the correct facilities.

There are much more roles that the training manager has to play. He had to manage the staff, manage the training quality and the training processes.

2. Manage Training Process.

The process include:

- making schedule for the course, the workshop visits and the on-job-training with operating aircraft. This is a tedious task as the four years of the training has to translated into the daily activities of classroom or practical work.

- running of the class

- Knowledge assessment consists of examination and skills assessments.

The training manager has the role to ensure that the students will get the license as planned, all the other activities are supporting this objective.

EASA 147 Examination Center

Our School is applying for the supplementary approval approval to be an exam center for the students.

The exam center is the additional approval given by the local airworthiness authority to an approved training organisation under EASA 147 to conduct the examination. Under the earlier BCAR section L, the examinations are conducted by the Surveyors and the authority like CAA controlled the quality of the licensed personnel. With EASA system, some of the function of qualifying to become a licensed engineer is handed to the approved school. The authority control the processes and monitor through audit and surveillance.

To qualify as an exam center, we have to apply to the authority, DCA , Department of Civil Aviation. There are various requirements we have to satisfy. Some of them are:

a. Suitable facilities - A suitable rooms or hall to house the examination has to be provided. The seating distance between students must be in such a way that they cannot read the neighbor's writings.

b. Questions banks - The questions banks need to meet the quality and the quantity requirements. Some of the example of quality are... the structure of the questions, the answers and the level of difficulty.

The quantity is also important. We are looking at the figure of 8 times number of question per examination. For example, for one of the module, the part 66 guideline says, the exam must have 32 questions. So our bank must have 32x8 = 256 questions.

c. The most important criteria is to have sufficient manpower to manage the process. The person need for this post is the examiner. For Malaysian, the requirement for personnel follows the CAA requirements under part 147 Document 46 V1 (147 doc46)