Aviation safety training and education an essential building block to develop performant safety cultures. This should be among the first elements to scrutinize whenever employees are involved in safety accidents or incidents.
Safety training and education falls under the Safety Promotion component in the 4 Pillars of Aviation SMS. Safety training can make or break the successful performance of an SMS program for:
Safety training is not a simple topic though. The aviation industry is littered with so-called “training courses” that offer very little substance.
Here are the important elements of safety training and education in the aviation industry
Not all aviation risk management training is created equal. The quality of aviation safety training ranges as much as training price tags. And more expensive does not always equal better quality either. Getting good aviation SMS training is about knowing what to look for.
You can generally get a good indication of the quality of a training course from the course syllabus. Here are several elements of training that indicate a quality course:
The above points are all geared towards one thing: operational risk management.
The idea of training for operational risk management is very different from most risk management training courses, which often fail to move beyond lecture-based, conceptual models of risk.
Such training courses are a waste of money, as employees will forget most of the training by the time they fall asleep at night.
Safety training needs to happen at every level of an organization. Front-line employees, safety management, and upper management all need to understand their role in the risk management process.
Oftentimes, the effectiveness of SMS training will depend on safety management’s ability to understand what safety training is actually needed. How much money is wasted every year on redundant, irrelevant, or superfluous safety training?
Make sure risk management training counts – here are several indicators that more SMS training is needed:
Monitoring quality safety data metrics, such as aviation leading indicators, is a great way to monitor where more training is needed.
The fact is that aviation SMS training does guarantee anything. The training program might be a complete flop. This is bad financially, for safety, and for employee confidence in the SMS. Here are the most common mistakes made in training courses:
The above points are concluded by one feeling employees have about SMS training: they don’t care about it.
Don’t be fooled by false expectations about safety training. It may or may not be good for the SMS. The success of training depends on many factors, including:
When the above requisites are not met for delivering high-quality safety training, safety managers are often stuck with a bloated opinion of the preparedness level of the organization – the training misconceptions is that:
The above can be true, but training by no means guarantees it. Only good safety training provides these benefits.
Several SMS topics require more attention than others. Some of the core topics that should be trained are:
The above points should give employees a solid foundation in the effective safety culture needed for a successful aviation safety management system.
Aviation service providers do not need to spend considerable sums delivering initial SMS training to line employees. Most employees can access computers in our modern age. The most convenient, cost-effective SMS training is computer-based training.
Here are some training videos to supplement your initial aviation SMS training. Make sure you document which employees have participated in SMS training and the dates of their participation. While certificates are a nice touch, I have never seen a requirement that aviation service providers deliver Certificates of Completion to participants.
If you want to monitor SMS training automatically, SMS Pro has tools to deliver, track, and monitor the effectiveness of SMS training. Furthermore, SMS Pro will generate certificates, if this is a requirement.
How does the accountable executive know that SMS training budgets are providing a return on investment? Track your SMS training and the effectiveness of your training using a low-cost, commercially available SMS database. Every SMS Pro product has this capability. Watch these videos, and if you want to see more, sign up for a free demo.
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Last updated April 2024.