Air Traffic Control
Extensive multi-media advertisements are employed to build an application pool of qualified UAE nationals, who are then subjected to a comprehensive test battery to assess Aptitude, English and Science skills. A top-down selection rating is made and the successful candidates are further screened employing references, medical and security checks.
Scholarships are offered to a specified number of top performers who then enter an intensive 26-month training programme consisting of 8 separate elements. Courses are provided internally by the GCAA and externally, at world-renowned ATC Academies. Each element has identifiable benchmarks and timelines, which the student must achieve to continue in the programme.
Successful completion results in the award of an Air Traffic Control license and indeterminate employment with GCAA at an attractive grade and level.
The training of UAE nationals in the Air Navigation Services directorate for the UAE Air Traffic Control Centre commenced in earnest in 1998 with two major tenets applied; namely,
1. Air Traffic system safety integrity must not be compromised.
2. Air Traffic Services would continue to be of highest quality and invisible to our client base; i.e., immaterial to the nationality of the individual controller.
To this end, it was important to build a large applicant pool through extensive pro-active recruitment techniques such as visits to colleges, participation in career day activities and extensive media advertisement. The intent is to ensure that the best available candidates meeting the qualification profile would be invited for aptitude and English tests. Those candidates scoring the highest would then be offered to attend an interview where motivation, stress tolerance, teamwork capability, decision making and personal initiative were assessed.
The selected candidates were then introduced to a structured training programme consisting of 7 course modules over a 131 week period that had identified objectives and bench-marks for student achievement. Those students passing all elements of the 7 training modules were rewarded with Air Traffic licenses and elevated from the ATC scholarship programme to the status of indeterminate employees of the Authority with an attractive compensation package.
To date, the ATC Training Scholarship Programme has produced 10 licensed UAE national Air Traffic Controllers and employs another 10 in various stages in the structured training programme including 1 in the 7th and final module.
The success rate of this programme is comparable to that experienced by other developed countries including Eurocontrol which attests to the high caliber of UAE nationals who enter this vital and exciting career. Safety in the skies over the UAE depends on them.
Shift System Engineer
Qualified national candidates are awarded degree level university scholarships within the UAE, or, alternatively, recruited from post-secondary institutes with a minimum of a higher diploma. Extensive OJT, which follows a structured task analysis associated with modern vertically-integrated ATC systems, are coupled with overseas training on courses which are not normally provided at post-secondary institutes within the UAE and elsewhere, such as radar. Candidates successfully completing this training are put through an intensive certification program to ensure engineering system-integrity is maintained. Successful completion of the certification process effects a promotion to the applicable Shift System Engineer grade and allowances.