Skyguide academy converts its ongoing courses to remote training

Skyguide converts its ongoing courses to remote training

In February 2020, skyguide academy started its Area Control Surveillance course for 18 trainee air traffic controllers and 6 instructors as on-site training. In view of the rapid spread of the coronavirus in Switzerland and across Europe as a whole, the Federal Council ordered all training centres to close. Because of the need to maintain numbers of well-qualified air traffic controllers going forward, an indefinite interruption to courses already underway was out of the question for skyguide. This meant that the company had to find alternatives quickly.

Challenge

In collaboration with ROSE Simulation (which provides radar training modules) and Axians (which provides the IT infrastructure and virtualisation), skyguide academy’s management team looked very carefully at all the options for converting the courses previously delivered on site to remote training on simulators using the existing E-Learning Access Network (ELAN). In addition to safeguarding the trainees’ health, the top priority was to ensure that the training was still of the highest quality. Maintaining quality was a crucial pre-requisite for ensuring that the highest safety requirements continue to be met.
Solution
It became clear that the existing systems were the perfect basis for enabling the changeover. The processes and the training approach could also be adapted quickly to become remote training components. Within just 3 days, about 60 simulation runs including the underlying data were set up, a remote 1:1 coaching solution was integrated, an electronic debriefing system for trainees was established, and several virtual collaboration spaces were created for the various groups. In addition to all this, a training plan was developed to reflect the new situation.

All trainees, experts, and teaching staff now have convenient remote access to skyguide academy’s e-learning access network. After a short familiarisation phase, they can continue seamlessly with their “Area Control Surveillance Radar” course, now delivered as remote online training.