ATS academy Entry Point North has jointly developed and delivered a harmonised area control surveillance (ACS) rating training module for the ANSPs in five EU member states: Austria, Croatia, Denmark, Ireland and Sweden.
The cooperation started in 2013 when Austro Control and Croatia Control Ltd requested an ACS training module with COOPANS functionalities for their future air traffic controllers. Entry Point North development director Kerstin Sjöbeck said: "The exploration of the needs and coordination among our existing customers as well as Austrian and Croatian ANSPs resulted in the harmonised and standardised ACS training module in terms of content and methodology. It is a remarkable step towards implementing Eurocontrol Single European Sky objectives within ATC training."
In addition to the economy of scale, the harmonisation gives high flexibility when assigning training instructors and combining student classes. Drawing on their extensive knowledge and operational experience of the COOPANS system, the instructors provide all the students with live demonstrations and hands-on training using the latest COOPANS HMI. Consequently a transfer from simulation to on-the-job training is both facilitated and accelerated in a shorter time frame.
Entry Point North now delivers ACS training modules at its three training sites in Shannon, Budapest and Malmö.