Story ID: 041
Stepping Up Safety with Competency-based Training
By: Stuart “Kipp” Lau
Caption: While taking root with airlines, competency-based training is relatively novel in the business aviation sector
Word Count: 2307
Despite improvements in aircraft, technologies, and safety systems, there was a noticeable uptick in fatal accidents involving business jets and turboprops during the first three months of 2024. Globally, 12 business aviation accidents resulted in 43 fatalities in the first quarter of this year. During the same period in 2023, there were seven accidents and 19 fatalities.
In each of these accidents, a pilot or crew was legally trained, qualified, and proficient, but found themselves in a situation that led to an undesirable aircraft state that ended in a catastrophe. Often these accidents involve an unexpected condition or threat that was not encountered during an initial or recurrent training event. Reviewing each accident case presents ample learning opportunities to improve safety. Unfortunately, traditional training programs are too rigid and cannot easily adapt to change.  
Most business aviation training programs employ a model that “trains a task and checks a task”—this is largely unchanged from the way the Wright Brothers taught people to fly in the early 1900s. Each training task satisfies a regulatory requirement, often accomplished in a time-compressed, box-checking exercise that ensures compliance, without any consideration for operational context.
For the business aviation pilot, the FAR 61.58 PIC proficiency check is a great example of the “train a task, check a task” model where a pilot visits a training provider to fly the same approaches, stalls, steep turns, and engine failures-at-V1 maneuvers year-after-year. It is widely acknowledged that these maneuvers-based training programs are unpopular with business aviation pilots and safety advocates, alike. For decades, the NBAA safety committee has recommended ditching these “cookie cutter” training and checking events in favor of scenario-based training sessions tailored to meet the specific needs of a business aviation operation.
A Better Way
However, there is a novel and improved approach to training called competency-based training and assessment (CBTA) that will produce higher-performing and more resilient flight crews, according to Farnborough, UK-based FlightSafety International (FSI) regional director Fernando Sanchez. “Traditional pilot training focuses more on execution of maneuvers to ‘proficiency,’ which is measured against published tolerances. However, CBTA permits the use of focused training elements within a scenario to meet or exceed a particular standard.”
The International Civil Aviation Organization’s (ICAO) definition of CBTA is “training and assessment that are characterized by a performance orientation, emphasis on standards of performance and their measurement, and the development of training to the specific performance standards.” Sanchez summarizes this by saying, “In practical terms, this means pilots are trained according to predefined standards, which have a direct relation to safety and operational effectiveness.”
Scheduled airlines are leading the way in adopting CBTA as a training methodology. Boeing, through its global Heads of Training CBTA workshops, has been able to introduce CBTA to more than 100 customers and 20 regulators. Since implementing CBTA methodology within its curricula, Boeing has seen an increase in requests for guidance from its dedicated global CBTA deployment team to actively support its customer airlines.
Boeing Global Services senior manager of airline training deployment Stuart Gruber explained: “CBTA is an integrated and outcome-focused training program aimed at providing pilots with the competencies to be resilient, safe, and highly effective in the performance of their duties.”
Gruber highlighted some key improvements, saying: “CBTA is a significant shift in training, which identifies, develops, and evaluates the competencies required by pilots to operate safely, effectively, and efficiently in a commercial air transport environment. While most traditional training methods rely primarily on historical accident and incident data, there is a wealth of additional data about what highly successful pilots do that can be analyzed to enhance operator safety.”
Two years ago, CAE introduced a new enhanced recurrent training option for business aviation that leveraged modern competency and evidence-based training philosophies. Developed to improve the PIC proficiency check (61.58) experience for its customers, CAE’s Scenario-based Enhanced Recurrent training program includes human-factors-based scenarios and uses data to reduce risk by continuously evolving recurrent training sessions to improve pilot competency and resilience.
CAE continues to innovate and is adopting CBTA philosophies throughout its curricula. According to CAE chief learning officer for commercial aviation training, Civil Aviation Services Christopher Ranganathan, “Traditional training and checking are based on curricula designed to ensure reliable crew performance in routine (foreseen) line operations, and in response to lessons learned from previous accidents.” He adds, “…[this] assumes that teaching pilots to avoid errors made by crews in these previous accidents…will prevent the next accident."
A key safety driver, according to Ranganathan, is to ensure effective threat and error management (TEM). “Traditional training programs normally address this requirement through separate training modules for ‘technical skills’ (e.g., systems and procedures knowledge, procedures application, flight path control) and ‘non-technical (CRM) skills’ (e.g., communication, leadership, situation awareness, decision making).”
Defining Competencies
Ranganathan further describes how CBTA can better prepare pilots for unexpected threats. “CBTA considers that given the complexity of humans and the general aviation environment, it is very unlikely the conditions likely to cause the next accident will be like something the pilot has been exposed to in training that is based on historical precedent only,” he said. “Instead, it seeks to provide the pilot with the knowledge, skills, and attitudes, described in terms of observable behaviors, that a trained crew can apply in a manner that will allow them to perform both routine tasks required in day-to-day operations and to mitigate the effects of threats yet unforeseen. For ease of use, these observable behaviors are grouped or organized into a set of competencies.”
According to Ranganathan, “A competency is a dimension of human performance that is used to reliably predict successful performance on the job. A competency is manifested and observed through behaviors that mobilize the relevant knowledge, skills, and attitudes to carry out activities or tasks under specified conditions.”
Ranganathan continued, “In CBTA program design, ‘events’ are introduced into training programs as vehicles to train the required observable behaviors, with the application of these observable behaviors serving as TEM countermeasures. Competencies are developed methodically through: (i) the introduction of training events that progressively require the application of an increasing number of the full set of observable behaviors; (ii) by progressively increasing the complexity of the simulated operational and environmental condition (threats); and/or (iii) progressive withdrawal in the amount of instructional intervention.”
UK-based Skyborne Airline Academy offers flight training services for some of the largest airlines. Students are immersed in airline-style training at modern training centers located in the U.S., UK, and Europe.
Skyborne manager of multi-pilot training Nick Heard, as a company subject matter expert, is keen on developments in the flight training industry and added to the discussion on CBTA benefits. “CBTA is a system of defined pilot training which requires trainees to achieve proficiency in knowledge, skills, and attitude within nine technical and non-technical competencies. It provides extremely detailed analysis of pilot development by assessing so-called ‘observable behaviors’ within the nine competencies and the many sub-competencies within them.”
He added: “CBTA ensures more detailed analysis of pilot proficiency than traditional training as it provides a broader observational platform for training data scrutiny, which encompasses both technical and non-technical data.”
Origins of CBTA
Heard pointed out that CBTA is not new and is linked to evidence-based training (EBT). “CBTA was developed for the aviation industry in the 1970s, gaining most ground in the last 20 years,” he said. “EBT sits within CBTA. Arguably, all pilot training is evidence-based. However, modern EBT can be seen as a refinement of CBTA to incorporate changing data (i.e. evidence) into training system design.”
Heard drew some comparison to advanced qualification programs (AQP) employed by major airlines. “This is employed by airlines, which modify traditional recurrent training in response to internal or external safety data trend analysis to prevent potentially serious incidents.” An example cited by Heard is the use of flight data monitoring (FDM) information to highlight an adverse trend in unstable approaches. 
FlightSafety International’s Sanchez further explained the differences between EBT and CBTA. “EBT and CBTA are related but are not the same. EBT has been around for a while and it used elements of the real-world operation, usually detected by data gathering and analysis, to guide training needs,” he said. “The novelty of the approach is that this data analysis can highlight areas where pilot competencies could be trained for improvement, rather than specifying training events or maneuvers training only.
“For instance, data could show that multiple issues could be traced to deficiencies in SOP compliance by crews operating in situations of high workload. An EBT program would produce training that focuses on the pilot competencies of application of procedures and workload management. A competency-based program would focus on the crew behaviors as they manage through the situation.”
CBTA Benefits
According to Boeing Global Services Stuart Gruber, implementing CBTA will improve flight crew performance, and make the training process more efficient and effective. “The change to CBTA methodology in pilot training focuses on developing and evaluating skills, knowledge, and behaviors essential for pilots to operate safely and efficiently in a commercial air transport environment. The benefit to individual pilots with CBTA training is a more tailored and relevant learning experience.”
Gruber added, “Boeing’s implementation of CBTA leverages digitally advanced tools and fleet operations data to customize training to each individual airline, and helps pilots efficiently respond to in-flight challenges. It is this evidence, both within training and from operations, which informs unique training requirements, enabling the development of a more competent pilot.”
CAE’s Ranganathan understands the merits and supports the implementation of CBTA programs., “Given the fundamental CBTA ethos of preparing a pilot for the routine (foreseen) and the unforeseen (unexpected threats), CBTA should result in a pilot who is more resilient.”
Ranganathan is also sold on the data collection aspects of the program. “CBTA requires the monitoring and analysis of standard training metrics. Sharing of this standardized data allows for benchmarking.”
Fundamentally, Ranganathan said, “The key to the quality in any training program is the instructor. CBTA has defined a global pilot instructor-evaluator competency framework that addresses TEM in the context of instruction. In CBTA, instructor-evaluator competence is also assessed, paying equal emphasis on the process of instruction (a documented set of instructor-evaluator behaviors) as it does on the outcome (quality of training delivered). The application of CBTA thus facilitates an objective measure of instructor-evaluator competence.”
Skyborne Training Academy’s Heard agreed. “Training for instructors using CBTA is essential to ensure standardized assessment of the observable behaviors, which form the lynchpin of CBTA. Without instructor training, data may become skewed, leading to incorrect analysis of proficiency.”
According to Ranganathan, CBTA is scalable and can complement an operator’s safety management system. “With EBT, every operator can benefit from 'best in class' recurrent program analysis and design, by direct adoption of the 'baseline EBT' program from ICAO Doc 9995 relevant to the generation of aircraft in their fleet. After a period of maturity in EBT, an operator may elect to enhance their EBT through incorporation of insights from their safety management System (SMS).”
Ranganathan further explained, “For the individual operator, the best measure of the efficacy of a training program is obtained through the analysis of operational outcomes. Modern safety management systems use a TEM lens to determine the current level of safety performance, seeking data to implement predictive safety intervention, if possible; proactive intervention if this is not possible; and then at least reactive actions. The safety performance measurement tools include flight data analysis, crew-generated occurrence/hazard reports, results of safety investigations into line events and the line operational safety audit (LOSA). Of these, FDM, crew occurrence reports, and safety investigations provide reactive opportunities, while insights from FDM, crew hazard reports, and LOSA can provide proactive safety opportunities.”
He added, “The assessment of crew competence in CBTA is framed in the context of TEM performance and so allows a ready comparison with LOSA outputs and safety investigations that are conducted using the pilot competency framework to describe crew behavior. This facilitates predictive safety management.
“The robust methodology required by CBTA for general training program design, allows the creation of consistent training programs, targeted to the pilot demographic and addressing relevant operational threats," he concluded.
“The main benefit of CBTA," said FlightSafety International’s Sanchez, "is that the training focuses on transferable behaviors represented by relevant knowledge, skills, and attitudes. Transferable means that the training is not aimed at dealing with events ‘like the last one.’ Rather the training is to improve the related pilot competencies that would allow pilots to deal with any future events where the competencies may be required.”
For the pilot, Sanchez explained, “CBTA is about achieving competency standards that permit pilots to deal with unknown and novel situations. For instance, when dealing with complex aircraft systems failures in challenging environmental conditions, pilots require a set of well-trained competencies, regardless of the system that failed (hydraulic, electrical, etc.) or the environmental conditions of the flight (cold weather, stormy conditions, limited radar coverage, etc.).”
Implementation of CBTA is an important step, according to Skyborne Aviation Academy’s Heard. “Many commercial airlines are already proactively using CBTA within their initial and recurrent training programs. Other airlines may need to see further evidence of the cost-benefit before investing in CBTA programs. Along similar lines, the business aviation industry may still need to be convinced of the benefits of CBTA, through clear evidence of improved safety and efficiency.”