A key risk identified recently by the Ground Handling Operations Safety Team (GHOST) in their ‘Operational Readiness post COVID-19’ document was the management of expiring training.

With airports having already extended the validity of Airside Driving Permits (and other training) by 90 days prior to lockdown, further extensions bring inherent risks, particularly where teams have not been operational for many months. There is also the potential that new team members will require training as services begin to restart.

The delivery of this type of training is usually ‘in-person’, and with good reason – courses provided by AIRDAT result in drivers being 4.5 times less likely to be involved in an incident or accident. However, to do this whilst maintaining social distancing measures is almost impossible, and for many providers, not financially viable considering the reduced ‘per course’ numbers required.

AIRDAT have formulated an interim training solution available to all airports. The approach will help to offset the full cost of training for 3rd parties to a later date when they are in a better financial position, whilst still allowing for an acceptable level of operational compliance and social distancing to be maintained – all without any additional cost to the airport operator.

AIRDAT now offer bespoke ‘Airside Driving Certification’ eLearning Course creation. Using their production team to capture and edit training tours at the airport and converting existing ADP content into an online format. The course will provide current drivers with a 3-month extension to their ADP and the potential for new drivers to become inducted too.

The course/solution consists of six elements created using our in house production and instructor teams and delivered via AIRDAT’s Passport Training Management System

1 – Tour
Our film production team attend the airport and film the existing training ‘tour’, capturing footage via 2 fixed cameras on the vehicle and 1 roaming camera for use at the ‘hotspots’ and points of interest. The guide will also be fitted with a microphone. Following filming, an editing process will begin to cut down the footage into bitesize elements. A voice-over will also be added and this will then be inserted into the eLearning course as a required element.

2 – Training
AIRDAT would take your existing course content and convert this into online course material. The course would remain easily editable to your local team, via an online editing tool.

The e-learning course will cover all core subjects required by the airport/CAA CAP790/EASA 1168 airside driving course syllabus, such as;

  • Legislation
  • Licencing and minimum driver requirements
  • Airport notices, websites, App’s
  • Reporting – incidents, fire, security
  • Just culture and human performance
  • Minimum vehicle requirements
  • Safety and security
  • Parking and reversing
  • Topography and airfield maps
  • Stand Layout – road markings, signage, and lighting
  • Aircraft safety zones – ingestion and jet blast
  • Anti-collision lights – arrivals and departures
  • Taxiway crossing points
  • Aircraft refueling and safety zones
  • Adverse weather and driving at night

3 – Test
A fully interactive online test is built using the airports existing question database. Our eLearning author tool provides multi-choice, area drag and drop, reorder lists and text response style questioning. We will set the ‘pass’ criteria to match current standards. Questions can be pulled at random or be set list.

4 – Medicals
The course includes a link to our medical partners’ online form. A series of medical history questions provide information back to our medical team to allow for a risk-based interim assessment, valid for 3 months. Full ‘face to face’ ADP medicals can also be booked through the utilisation of PPE, for the issue of a full 3yr sign off (where appropriate).

5 – Permit
Following the completion of the course material and successful assessment, the candidate will be able to print a certificate that would be carried with their existing ADP (where applicable) for review at security gates and by the operations team, extending/providing sign off for Airside Driving for a further 3 months.

6 – Valued added access
AIRDAT provide further FREE access to our COVID-19 awareness course, and optional paid access to our ‘Home Working Essentials’ courses:

  • Homeworking essentials
  • DSE assessment for home workers
  • An introduction to resilience
  • Information security at home
  • Time management for home workers

At just £35 to the end customer per launch (minimum number of launches applies), our teams can convert your training from start to finish in 3-4 weeks, ready for delivery following confirmation. To find out more about this offering, or if you are interested in digitising other essential training as an interim solution, please get in touch with the team via our contact form or using [email protected]

Making your day safer.