“SO YOU CAN EARN YOUR RATING IN TOWING, OR AIRCRAFT MARSHALING, WHATEVER IS NEEDED AT THE MOMENT.” Mike France, Managing Director of Safety & Training, NATA “Our industry has evolved signifi- cantly since the early days of Safety 1st , and one thing we’d started to hear most frequently was that some of the training was starting to show a bit of age,” France admitted, with a laugh. “We transitioned from the old VHS tapes and their mid-1990s glory to the online version in 2008, but even that’s coming up on 10 years now. There are some videos interspersed throughout the current program where you’ll see an airport ramp and it looks like something out of Nick at Nite, something from an old television show. Like, ‘Oh, hey, you don’t see many JetStars and Lear 24s on the ramp anymore!’ So, for starters we’re updating the look and feel of the program; and, in the process, we’ll also be making more substantial updates.” Among other improvements, the new version will be friendlier to cross- platform devices, meaning it will be Aviation Business Journal | 1st Quarter 2017 as accessible by phone or tablet as by computer. France said it should also be intuitive to users accustomed to using modern mobile apps. “With the new training model and learning management system we’re developing, we’ll break up the training into functional, task-based pieces and you’ll add a rating as you complete each module,” France added. “So you can earn your rating in towing, or aircraft marshaling, whatever is needed at the moment. As an employee accumulates addi- tional ratings, they can earn higher certification levels and, if they get enough ratings, they can ‘level up’ to new responsibilities and maybe a new pay grade. We’re building in notifica- tions, the ability to track different training goals and accomplishments, and new ways to approach recur- rent training, add online webinars, and otherwise make use of some big advancements in technology. It will incentivize people to keep training up, and allow the trainer flexibility to instruct each person on what they need right now, and then for that person to receive some kind of recognition—in the form of a rating or certification—that they’ve completed that section. The overall effect is that it becomes a living, breathing training record that shows where each employee is in the training process.” Another overarching goal of the project, to update and overhaul Safety 1st , is the quest to globalize the content. France hopes to make the Safety 1st product more appealing and applicable to a global audience, starting with NATA members who already have an international pres- ence. That will include making sure the new Safety 1st modules align with the new IS-BAH standards and audit checklists, offering the training mod- ules in multiple language formats and streamlining the translation process to add other languages in the future, and working with international avia- tion groups, government regulators, and airport authorities to make sure the program meets all requirements. Continued on page 28 27
