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“We’re on target, and our newly hired controllers are highly motivated,” said Acting Administrator Robert A. Sturgell. “Significant improvements in the way we recruit, hire and train people are helping us manage through this predicted transition period.”
Recent data show key improvements in training methods lowered the training time to become a fully certified controller from an average of three to five years to an average of two to three years. The rigorous standards to become a Certified Professional Controller remain the same – the improved training means developmentals reach required proficiency goals sooner. All controllers must pass a series of increasingly complex and challenging stages in training before becoming fully certified.
Other training improvements include the addition of 18 new tower simulators to air traffic facilities throughout the nation and six new simulators to the FAA’s Air Traffic Controller Academy in Oklahoma City. Twenty-one new classes were added to the FAA Academy in order to accommodate the growing enrollment. The number of colleges and universities accredited to teach air traffic control as part of a college degree – called Collegiate Training Initiative (CTI) schools – increased by nine last year to now total 23.
The training improvements go hand-in-hand with recruitment initiatives that resulted in thousands of applications in fiscal 2007. Pre-employment processing centers provide one-stop shopping for invited candidates, allowing them to have final interviews and medical and security screenings in the same location on the same day. Other recruitment efforts include nationwide announcements, a bonus of up to $20,000 for eligible military and civilian hires with previous controller experience, and participation in recruitment fairs nationwide, including the NAACP Diversity Job Fair and the Congressional Black Caucus Diversity Job Fair. The agency is also using retention incentives to keep veteran controllers on the job longer.
The long-expected retirement wave of controllers who were hired after the 1981 PATCO strike resulted in the retirement of over 800 controllers in 2007. The FAA began submitting a workforce plan to Congress in 2004 outlining its plans to recruit, hire and train new controllers to meet the increasing number of retirements. The agency expects to finish the year with a controller workforce of 15,130, a net increase of 256 from the previous year.
Source: FAA
Posted April 2nd, 2008 by Armen Hareyan
FAA and $800M ATCITS Contract
I saw your earlier stories on the FAA and air traffic controller training. You may want to look much more into the ATCOTS contract being solicited right now by the FAA to do their future ATC training. Something rotten here.
The FAA very secretively manipulated the solicitation process where the public can't see what is happening. They set up a $800M competition where only one team has any chance of winning. The FAA changed the game rules (eliminated mandatory and very substantial small business component) after the initial down selection process, which prompted them to put this behind the veil of secrecy so no one can see what is happening. Under the original acquisition strategy, the current incumbent team wasn't going to be competitive, hence the change in evaluation strategy. Dyncorp got eliminated from the competition before these new evaluation rules were put in place. They have damn good reason to complain about this, but they don't even know what happened because of the FAA's secrecy.
There is good reason to believe Inhofe is in on the "fix" as he complained bitterly about this ATCOTS program before his beloved OU changed teams and got on to the only team that can win under the current solicitation. Ask OU why they recently changed from the CSC Team, which they had been on for over a year, and on to the Lockheed Team right before the final solicitation came out. Things that make you go “hmmmm”.
Although industry is complaining about the lack of available data from the FAA to support a proposal and the extremely short timeline for submittals, the FAA staffer's have been told to press on with what they got. What's the big rush to award an $800M, 10-year program without a decent, very public scrutiny of what is going on? The FAA can't wait a year and put out a solicitation that everyone in industry can compete on reasonably, not just the incumbent? Is this a good way to spend tax payer money? Companies like CSC, and Raytheon and Dyncorp want to say something but can't without upsetting a potential future customer in the FAA.
Again, all this makes one believe that something rotten is brewing in the FAA world of air traffic controller training.
Concerned Taxpayer