October 20th - International Day of the Air Traffic Controller
Welcome to the 2nd issue of Entry Point North – News. October 20th is International Day of the Air Traffic Controller. We honor ATCO’s & ATS colleagues who across the globe strive daily to insure safe open skies. As one of the leading ATC academies in Europe, Entry Point North is proud to serve you with a broad range of innovative activities aiming to continuously improve the education of the ATCO students and professional development courses for staff in such safety critical organisations.
Are you an ATS officer, ATCO, OJT Instructor, and Training Specialist or interested in development training? Then this quarterly newsletter is for you. It is offered to keep you up-to-date on relevant training developments and activities taking place at Entry Point North for you and your ATC colleagues.
Just Culture & Training in Safety Critical Organisations
Entry Point North hosted a Human Factors Seminar for ANSPs, CAA’s and airlines in Copenhagen, Denmark in August with over 40 participants from five countries. Many participants expressed how they valued the seminar not only as a practical forum for presentations regarding developing a just culture in their organisations but also for active dialogue regarding practical concerns among diverse participants in group discussions.
Participants share Just Culture experiences with Sidney Dekker
Something for everyone: Sidney Dekker - a Human Factor expert, professor at Lund University in Sweden, and pilot all in one – gave an eye opening presentation on the practical need to foster a just culture. His presentation on Just Culture was followed by Maria Lundahl, a Human Factor & Just Culture specialist within LFV in Sweden provided additional focus on developing a just culture in training which provided insight for lively discussions among participants. The day ended with group discussions which often came back to discussions regarding how “old school” training versus a “new school” training where a supportive training environment is developed based on a just culture principles.
Group discussion regarding Just Culture and expectations in training
Many participants echoed comments from Lundahl who noted the challenge is to change the culture. By establishing a stable, positive and fair training climate,
• where instructors believe in the students’ potential,
• where instructors act as coaches rather than judges
• where students are assessed according to the same objectives,
• where students are given the amount of training they need,
• where “Who gets to draw the line” is agreed upon,
• simply put: where all students are given the chance, a Just Training Culture in ATC can perhaps begin to unfold.
If you are interested in more information regarding just culture you may wish to review more info from the seminar available at: www.trynorth.com.
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Avinor & Naviair Instructors working at Entry Point North
The training of students at Entry Point North is a combination of theoretical training and simulator exercises. In addition to a staff of multinational training specialists with diverse ATC international experience, students benefit from training from operative instructors from the ANSPs, in fact ANSPs they may one day work with.
A reason these short-term instructors from ANSPs come to Entry Point North is the opportunity to gain more experience as a trainer under a temporary period as well as get a ‘change of environment’ as a practicing air traffic controller. Such was the case for Mads Rovsing a tower and approach air traffic controller from Naviair at Copenhagen Airport, Denmark. He has trained students under two periods in the simulators during their APS Module this spring.
Finding a way for it to work around work and family life was important. Since he was only away from his normal ATCO schedule for five weeks when instructing at Entry Point North, he was able to coordinate his working schedule to meet family needs as a young father. Like many of his colleagues, Mads is a source of inspiration to students who seek real life role models able to combine work with family life. Students benefit from interaction with someone who empathizes with their desire to work in the ATC profession and can share real life experiences at unit.
Naviair’s Mads Rovsing from Denmark
What constitutes a good ATC instructor? Of course, it is someone who is an experienced ATCO. But also someone who shares an OJTI training philosophy which places focus on offering positive reinforcement to ATC students; evaluating what students did right and what should they think about to improve. Morten Hachvaag from Avinor has what it takes. Since 2007 he has been an Instructor nine times under short periods at Entry Point North. After a few weeks as an instructor for an APS Module he returns to tower/approach duty at Flesland airport outside Bergen, Norway.
What is it that drives his interest for being an instructor at Entry Point North? At the beginning of his career he was not only a pilot, but also an aviation instructor in the USA. Since then he pursued ATC training in the UK followed by OJT with Avinor to become an ATCO. The personal development gained as a pilot instructor spurred his interest in supporting the learning needs of his future ATCO colleagues as an instructor. In total, his experience appears as well to have enabled him to be in tune with the communication needs of both the instructor and student.
Avinor’s Morten Hachvaag from Norway
As an instructor at Entry Point North, you have a unique opportunity to mix with colleagues from several countries. In fact within the same module both Mads and Morten represented two of four nationalities among short term instructors. Both noted the importance of knowing what is expected of them as instructors. If you are interested in finding out more about being an Instructor at Entry Point North you can learn more here.
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Student Support & Confidentiality Group
To be selected as a ATC/ATS student is not easy, to become a certified ATCO is a challenge as well. On a regular basis students are under pressure to perform well in order to fulfill the training. In case students need unbiased advice or support, they can now turn to a support group. This newly established Student Support and Confidentiality Group is a neutral forum where students can discuss in confidence any matter with people with insight and empathy for their situation, yet who is not their instructor(s).
The initiative for this group comes as a direct result of feedback from both students and training staff. The Student Support and Confidentiality Group has been developed along similar lines to ATCO support functions students will later find at ANSP’s.
The Student Support and Confidentiality Group structure is intended to enable a student to find a person they feel comfortable to talk to. The group is composed of employees from within the Training Department and consists of people that work closely with various training areas provided by Entry Point North. The group’s composition represents three nationalities as well as different genders.
This group shall provide individual support through discussions. As no one in the group is qualified as a psychologist they will not act as one. They are here to offer the students a listening ear and offer their assistance. The group of course follows the ethical principle of confidentiality.
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Exit Course - Preparing Initial Training Graduates for Unit Training
Obviously, the transition from student life at Entry Point North to eventual on-job training can be a demanding step into “the real deal”. Students come with a certain bag of knowledge, skills and confidence built up during initial training. Of course among key factors for their future success is the ability to hand stress and take responsibility for their education so they achieve a level where they are “unconsciously competent” at their tasks.
To ease with this transition, students now participate in a one day Exit Course at the end of their training at Entry Point North. Some call it a “Reverse OJTI Course”, since it is based on unit OJTI experiences with students from Entry Point North. According to Theis Larsen, the Development Training Instructor who leads this course, “the main idea is to give the students an understanding of the challenges with OJT at units. This includes differences from school and unit environment, the role of the OJTI, etc. It is important that students get understanding of how to handle situations that develop in unit training, know their own development and how to navigate through the mine field that OJT is.”
There are many stimuli thrown at them at once when they join a new environment with defined responsibilities. On top of it all, they need to keep in mind skills for being a good student, build trust with OJTI’s and develop their own self-confidence. No wonder ANSP’s have voiced an appreciation for the Exit Course, given students are made more aware of the mutual OJTI & trainee unit training expectations after graduation.
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Initial Training Graduating Classes
Graduating classes from 29 May until 3 July 2009
ATC 0815 B ADI
Course Supervisor: Villy Sörensen
Graduation Date: 2009-07-03
Rickard Bergh - LFV
Nina Blixt Meier - LFV
Johanna Börjesson - LFV
Gustav Ekdahl - LFV
Daniel Furugren - LFV
Hossein Ghate - LFV
Joel Lång Ryhn - LFV
Petra Nordberg - LFV
Fredrik Ohlin - LFV
Andreas Tinnerfelt - LFV
Jakob Wickman-Modigh - LFV
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AFIS 0922
Course Supervisor: Anne Mogenshoj Jensen & Jörn Andersen
Graduation Date: 2009-06-26
Emil Gjessing Björgan - Avinor
Monica Eilertsen - Avinor
Ivar Andre Ekehaug - Avinor
Kim Rune Höiseat Nerli - Avinor
Marius Karlsen - Avinor
Stefan Langfors - Notodden Lufthavn
Kristin Lunde - Avinor
Tom Jöran Olavsen - Avinor
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ATC 0803 ACS
Course Supervisor: Christian Holst & Carsten Thandrup Lund
Graduation Date: 2009-06-05
Max Bergman - LFV
Michael Berth Mortensen - Naviair
Jocelyn Fauteux - Naviair
Thomas Hartvig Jörgensen – Naviair
Simon Hultén - LFV
Joel Johansson - LFV
Anders Johansson - LFV
Anna Lolk Koch - Naviair
Kevin Mark Larsen - Naviair
Daniel Nilsson - LFV
Henry Näätänen - LFV
Marija Orlovac - LFV
Hans-Lars Kristian Pedersen - Naviair
Rebecca Söderlund - LFV
Niklas Thomasson - LFV
Ronni Östergaard - Naviair
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ATC 0815 A ADI
Course Supervisor: Bent Dahl Nielsen
Graduation Date: 2009-05-29
Henrik Blomstedt - LFV
Karin Boldrup - LFV
Fredrik Sebastian Bresky-Lindqvist - Avinor
Inger Heinert - Avinor
Rickard Hernqvist - LFV
Nils Homp - LFV
Sidsel Bordal Kristoffersen - Avinor
Live F Lausund - Avinor
Cassandra Omholt - Avinor
Hans Olav Roaldstveit - Avinor
Björn Röjder - LFV
Kristoffer Sletta - Avinor
Ivan Solbakken - Avinor
Henrik Svedberg - LFV
Jon Fredrik Weldingh - Avinor
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ATC 0809 ADI
Course Supervisor: Anders Pettersson
Graduation Date: 2009-05-29
Johan Andersson - LFV Group
Nathalie Edlund - LFV Group
Andreas Foerster - LFV Group
Erik Gunnelin - LFV Group
Andreas Holmskov - LFV Group
Roger Långström - LFV Group
Patrik Magnetorp - LFV Group
Hans Persson - LFV Group
Carsten Peters Niebuhr - Naviair
Anna Sandström - LFV Group
Martin Stridsman - LFV Group
Christoffer Westling - LFV Group
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