# ✒️ Training Operating Procedures Student and Mentor policies # Training Policy for Students ## Purpose The VATSIM Scandinavia Training Policy for Students establishes general requirements, training procedures, and responsibilities and expectations of all students training for ATC ratings and endorsements. The training policy is based on the VATSIM Global Controller Administration Policy (GCAP) and VATEUD Division Training Policy (DTP). ## Requirements
  1. VATSIM and VATEUD
    The student must fulfil the requirements described in GCAP and DTP.

  2. Good standing
    The student must be in good standing with the VATSIM Scandinavia training department, mentors and the VATSIM Scandinavia FIR communities.

  3. Language
    All students should be able to communicate and provide air traffic control service in English, the internationally accepted language for air traffic control.

  4. Number of training requests
    The student may only have one training request at a time, including requesting training in other vACCs on VATSIM as a visiting controller.

  5. Internal transfer
    VATSIM Scandinavia students have possibility to control in any other country within VATSIM Scandinavia as visiting controllers after having completed familiarisation training. Consequently, in general there should not be any need for internal transfers between the countries within VATSIM Scandinavia. Thus, if a student has completed an internal transfer from one country to another within VATSIM Scandinavia, there will be a cooling off period of one (1) year before any training request in the previous country will be accepted.

  6. Readiness
    If the student is requesting training or, is in training for a higher rating or endorsement, the student must be ready for further practical training. Specifically, the student should have been actively controlling, be up to date, and have working knowledge and reasonable practical controlling skills at the student's current rating level.
    1. Active
      The student must have been controlling actively at least 5 hours within 30 days before scheduling any practical training session(s).
    2. Current
      To be considered current, students must:
      • know the latest operating procedures at the current rating level, and
      • have installed prescribed controlling software versions and necessary additional files, for example, the latest sector files package.
## General Training Procedure ### Requesting training The student should request training from VATSIM Scandinavia’s training management system Control Center (CC), found at the VATSIM Scandinavia website. ### Training Queue #### Expected waiting time

The student will initially be placed in the training queue. The time spent in the queue will vary significantly depending on mentor availability, training demand, season, and other factors. Waiting times are often difficult to predict, and students are kindly asked not to repeatedly contact staff members asking for estimates. They are instead encouraged to study procedures, observe active controllers, and engage in other activities that will later benefit their training process.

#### Confirm interest

While waiting for an available mentor or assignment, the student will also receive a monthly training confirmation email. To maintain their place in the queue, the student has to confirm their training interest within two weeks of receiving the email. Failure to confirm will automatically close the training request. It is the student's responsibility to check their inbox, spam filter, etc., to make sure that continued interest for training is confirmed. It's also possible to login to Control Center and directly confirm ongoing interest for training in the training system.

### Training assignment Depending on the type of training, the student will be assigned a mentor or enrolled in a training programme. Upon assignment, the student is required to establish contact with the mentor, the Training Lead, or Training Team member within 7 days. Otherwise, the training request will be closed without any prior notification. ### Practical training Students are expected to study theory between sessions and always be prepared when showing up for training sessions. Mentors spend considerable amounts of their spare time mentoring students, and an even balance between time spent in practical sessions and time spent on self-studies is expected from the student. ### Local Training Procedures All countries in VATSIM Scandinavia may have local procedures building upon this policy. This policy cannot be overruled, but it may be elaborated upon and impose additional deadlines or expectations. The student should read and adhere to the local training procedures for the FIR where they have applied for training. - [Local Training Policy - Norway](https://wiki.vatsim-scandinavia.org/books/training-curriculum/chapter/local-training-policy) - [Training - Sweden](https://wiki.vatsim-scandinavia.org/books/training-in-sweden) - [Training - Finland](https://wiki.vatsim-scandinavia.org/books/getting-started) - [Training - Denmark](https://wiki.vatsim-scandinavia.org/books/training-department) ## Responsibilities and Expectations In summary, VATSIM Scandinavia expects the following from a student enrolled in ATC training:
  1. VATSIM
    The student should adhere to the VATSIM Code of Conduct General Rules and Controller Conduct.

  2. VATSIM Scandinavia Member Obligations
    The Student must follow the Member Obligations in the Constitution of VATSIM Scandinavia (Section 4.4.1) during training, CPTs, and while providing ATC.

  3. Communication
    1. Initial contact
      The student shall make initial contact with the mentor or staff of the training programme within seven (7) days of assignment.
    2. Respond
      The student must maintain regular communication with the mentor and training staff. Regular communication means answering emails or Discord chat messages within at least seven (7) days.­

  4. Planning
    The student is able to make and follow plans.
    1. Time
      The student should propose at least one date for a training session every 14-day period. If availability permits, at least one session per week is a recommended average.
    2. Show up
      The student should show up on time to all scheduled sessions.
    3. Cancel
      The student should be cautious and respectful when cancelling a training session and should give as much prior notice as possible if any unforeseen problem arises. Repeated late cancellations of training sessions will result in an investigation of the student's training eligibility.
  5. Pause
    The student should notify their mentor if they are absent and are unable to train for more than a 14-day period so that the training request can be paused. Pausing the training request is intended for shorter periods during holidays or travel. Pausing the training for longer periods than 90 days will lead to automatic cancellation of the training request.

  6. Unavailable
    If either the student or mentor is unable to schedule a session within any 30-day period, the training staff must be involved, and the training will be marked as inactive and will result in an investigation into the student's training eligibility.

  7. Controller Practical Test Scheduling
    It is the student's responsibility to provide dates of availability for a controller practical test in due time to the Training Lead or Training Team Member. The student must be prepared to find an alternative date based on examiner availability. Failure to do so will result in the removal of the Solo Endorsement until a date for the controller practical test has been scheduled.

  8. Commitment
    1. Set aside time
      The student is prepared to commit to at least 5 hours each 14-day period for training, self-study, and availability.
    2. Drive to improve
      The student reads the training report after each completed training session and, to the best of the student's ability, actively works to improve knowledge, use of practical functionality, and practice based on the feedback from the mentor.
    3. Prepare
      The student should show up to training sessions well prepared with own questions and answers to study questions from the mentor.
  9. Respectful behaviour
    The student understands that the mentors commit their spare time to train others.

  10. Feedback
    The student accepts constructive feedback both during training and after CPTs respectfully and understands that the mentor or examiner provides feedback in order to develop the student as a controller professionally.

    An example of mature behaviour is to resist the initial reflex to start to argue and just say:

    ”Thank you for taking the time to provide feedback for me so I’m able to improve as ATC."

## Violation The Training Director or the Training Lead may impose restrictions on the training request if the student does not fulfil the expectations and responsibilities. A training request may be closed after the student has twice violated the above mentioned expectations and responsibilities, and has received at least one written warning. # Training Policy for Mentors ## Purpose To achieve a standard method and approach on training within VATSIM Scandinavia. This policy generally focuses on the responsibilities of the mentor but also general guidelines and tips. Moreover, it is important this document is kept alive, continually evaluated and amended as the training situation is in motion. The core of the Training Department‘s attitude is to provide the organisation with skilled members, ready and trained, to provide ATC throughout our network. To deliver this, we need to work efficiently and help each other reach this goal. ## Training Progression Student progression towards ATC ratings in VATSIM Scandinavia is described in the policy for students. All mentors are to be fully aware of the steps the student has to undergo to achieve their ratings and do as much as they can to ensure their journey is as smooth as possible. The mentor shall contact the training assistant or director if a student does not show satisfactory progress after three sessions. Given that the mentor writes good reports as expected, this can be then used to send a progression warning where the student will be given two sessions to show new progress before the case is escalated. ## Responsibilities and Expectations VATSIM Scandinavia expects the following from ATC Mentors. 1. Mentors refrain from sharing user information or training details with unauthorized individuals, under any circumstances. Violations will be reported to the Data Protection Officer and the board for disciplinary actions and handled according to our Data Protection Policy. 2. Mentors are prepared to work with different types of individuals and provide the same training quality to everyone. 3. Mentors are dedicated to teaching and will deliver the training in a professional manner. 4. Mentors propose at least one date per two-week period to all their students when they can train them. If availability permits, at least one session per week is a recommended average. 5. Mentors show up prepared for all sessions, with clear goals and objectives for the session to present to the student. 6. Mentors provide appropriate feedback in a respectful manner and debrief the session in a way that allows the student to reflect upon their own performance and not only direct feedback from the mentors. 7. Mentors stay current with local and general procedures. 8. Mentors shall provide their students with detailed, accurate and correct information with reference to official documents, such as AIP, GOP, LOP and LoA. 9. Mentors understand that they represent the VATSIM Scandinavia Training Department and present themselves in an appropriate manner whilst connected to the VATSIM Network and its affiliated services (forums, Discord etc.). ## Standard process of training In order to provide high quality and effective training, the training process has been standardised and training should follow these standards in all FIRs of VATSIM Scandinavia. However, these standards should be considered more as guidelines rather than strict rules and FIR specific variations can be approved by the Training Director, when deemed necessary. Every mentor should be familiar with the training process and should consult this document before contacting the training staff with questions regarding the next step in the process. 1. Students apply for training via Control Center (CC) and the system places the student in the queue. The Training Assistant assigns relevant Moodle courses. 2. Every mentor is responsible for informing the Training Assistant when they are able to take on a new student. 3. The mentor is responsible for filing training reports after every session, according to The Training Report section of this document. 4. During the training, the student must comply with the requirements stated in the Student Training Policy. If the student violates the policy, it is the initial mentor’s decision whether it may be excused. If any further violations occur, the Training Assistant and/or Training Director must be consulted before the training is discontinued. ## The Training Report Training Reports are recorded in CC and must be filed within three days of every session unless the mentor and TA have agreed otherwise. Below are tips and guidelines for how the training reports are to be written, the headings correspond to the titles of the text boxes in the CC Training Report. Well written reports are crucial to be able to escalate lack of progression to training staff, therefore we ask you to use a few minutes to write a report that reflects the feedback. It's not expected to write much, but it should make sense for an external training staff to grasp the difficulties and potential for improvement by solely reading the reports. ### Date The date the session took place. ### Position The position that was worked during the session. ### Comments on Session “This happened” (is to be written objectively)\ **Example**: Most of the traffic was handled per LOP/LOA. BAW779 was given FL200 after departure by Stockholm which led to a conflict for Sweden later on. Traffic misunderstood the met-report as the term RVR was not used. ### Areas to Improve What needs to be done to get closer to the curricula? What can the student and mentor do? This should reflect what is being said in the descriptive part but also what the plan is for the following session. **Example**​: The trainee will study the METAR decoding sheets to give the traffic proper information regarding different weather situations at the airport. The trainee should study the agreed levels between Stockholm and Sweden carefully. Mentor will give an oral progress check next time. Remember, we build confidence on what the student is doing correctly and we put that into focus. We should however not put any judgment into the reports. Rather than writing: You separated the 4 traffic well or perfectly, we should write that the traffic was separated per the regulations or similar. It is important to keep in mind that during the training, we train and during the examination we assess. ## Other types of training In other types of training than standard, such as refresh there's a requirement that the training reports are still written for these kind of sessions. The local training assistant will have the saying on how this types of trainings are defined as completed. Refresh trainings should be trained up to today's level and expectation of a controller.