Keeping up with international standards

In April 2014 the teachers of VD Aviation Training Center went to Flybe Training Academy (Exeter International Airport) to do a Rater Refresher Course with the purpose to polish their skills in assessing language proficiency of aviation specialists.

The training was conducted by a recognized expert in the field of language rating, a co-director of ICAEA (International Civil Aviation English Association) and the author of popular Aviation course books, Henry Emery.

The fact that among the course participants were teachers from across the world (the representatives of Ethiopian Airlines, Volga-Dnepr Group, Oxford Aviation Academy, Civil Aviation of Cote d’Ivoire) created a great opportunity for exchanging a valuable experience in teaching and rating aviation personnel.

The teachers from VD Aviation Training Center Gumanova Maria, Shumaeva Anna and Salikhova Asiya successfully passed the exams and got the certificates which acknowledged their right to assess aviation specialists according to the ICAO scale.

“A trip to the Great Britain is always an event for me”,-says Anna. It’s a great chance to see interesting historical and beautiful places, to practise English with  native speakers, to try traditional English food. We’re lucky because we’ve been trained by talented and experienced teachers. To be a rater is a real challenge. This is where people’s lives are at stake. On the one hand, if you rate a candidate below Operational level according to the ICAO scale, he or she could end up losing their jobs. On the other, rater’s Inaccuracy in evaluation can put at stake flight safety. We want to thank our trainers Henry and Dennis because now we’ve become more experienced and confident in rating aviation personnel.