AAI ISO/IEC 17024 Certification of Aviation Experts

ISO 17024 certification of Aviation Experts

 

The ISO/IEC 17024:2012 for Aviation Experts is a new Quality Standard for aviators to strive for, especially if he or she wants to work internationally or as a civil servant for Aviation Authorities.

 

This certification is for experts and specialists with many years of experience in aviation who wish to offer their expertise on the international stage.

 

The term „Aviation Expert“ is not protected and covers a wide range of disciplines with many facets that cannot be covered by a single person. Therefore a general description of an Aviation Expert is required and it includes depth of knowledge, competencies and accomplishments; as well as relevant licences and other pertinent validations.

 

With inputs from ICAO the AAI Certification Body has developed an Aviation Expert concept based on their combined career experience in all areas of the Aircraft Industry, Aviation Authorities and Aviation Organisations, in order to provide transparency and an important platform for ambitious individuals.


The ICAO Global Aviation Safety Plan (GASP) is all-encompassing, based on Safety Management and Risk Mitigation to be standardised globally in the next few years. The commercial aviation industry is showing a high rate of growth and needs more certified specialists in all disciplines in the future. This is also true for the Authorities!


Authorities now need more expertise due to tight budgets and old-fashioned organisational structures. The ICAO is pushing Authorities world-wide to introduce State Safety Programmes (SSP), for which they shall need proven experts to action these programmes.
 
The ICAO has run Compliance Monitoring Audits (CMA) since 2013 world-wide where every Authority can compare and benchmark capabilities and knowledge via the ICAO website.
 
The aviation industry has long since developed its own structures, employed experts and implemented Safety Management Programmes. Now the Aviation Authorities are expected to develop a global SSP for all aviation areas, and additionally to monitor  aviation industry Safety Management Systems (SMS). However there are often too few experienced experts available!
 
Decision-makers within the Authorities often find that one can find experts with relevant experience and validations, but that application processes and budget cuts often thwart the appointment of a qualified person within the required time-frame.
 
For this reason, the EASA has reacted and introduced new regulations (EU 965/2012 Part ARO-GEN 200) in the area of personnel requisition in Authorities where the hiring of competent experts is required. Similar and further-reaching requirements can be found in ICAO Document 8335 with a detailed profile for the selection of Flight Inspectors.
 
Looking at the long term, Authorities will have no choice but to employ staff on short-term contracts from outside the organisation in order to fulfill all required duties. Some Authorities have already gone down this route and recruited external experts. Therefore this EASA concept proposes the collocation of all available aviation experts in a database.
 
However, there is still a central problem when one asks the question: How does one fairly define and ascertain what an aviation expert knows; and which expert fits which expertise profile(s)?
 
Some AAI employees also work for other Agencies as Inspectors or in Management positions. The ICAO and EASA have long discussed how one can solve the problem of fulfilling the GASP requirements whilst also having enough Aviation Experts to support local needs and global benchmarking activities.
 
The solution to this problem lies in organising all the specialists and experts in a certified and organised system based on their career experience and knowledge in order to offer their services for future commissions.
 
In addition such a validated process naturally offers the potential for a gap-analysis for experts to identify where they could continuously improve their capabilities.
 
There are many good experts available in the market!  For example experienced pilots, flight instructors, aircraft inspectors or avionics experts, Director's of Flight Operations, accident inspectors, design engineers or Auditors and Quality Managers.
 
One only has to correctly estimate ones experience and catalogue this in order to apply for the certification process. This process is based on a realistic self-assessment backed-up with relevant certificates and supporting documentation; an assessment interview with the Certification Board; and the writing of a structured investigative report to demonstrate reporting skills. After a successful application, the new Aviation Expert shall receive an official certificate, a certificate, an official stamp and is added to the public database in order to advertise to receive commissions.
 
In March 2013 the ICAO audited the AAI for the efficacy of the special certification process for Aviation Experts, and the training of these experts for the aviation industry and for Aviation Authorities.  This was successful and since May 2013 AAI is an ICAO Trainair PLUS Associate Member, which enables AAI and ICAO to support this initiative in the future.
 
We will be happy to take your application if you wish to be available as an Aviation Expert world-wide or just to broaden your current experience and find new career opportunities!
 
 

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