EUROCONTROL'S Dr Manfred Barbarino, leading the Job Description Task Force (JDTF), has to determine all the ATC tasks, which will have to be performed in a control centre of the future formed under the European Air Traffic Control Harmonisation and Integration Programme (EATCHIP), then define the role of each of the categories of controllers who would be required to make it operate.
The JDTF is approaching the task empirically, using teams of existing controllers, supervised by a "facilitator" who is a human-factors expert, to identify the questions which need answering. Having done that, the team members contribute opinions as to the possible answers using their own experience. Finally, the responses are analysed using a scientific approach.
The first Task Force meeting drew up a conceptual model for task and job descriptions. The core components identified were:
Task description: structure and breakdown;
job criteria: jobs to be done, and "job families";
levels of task-related ability: abilities, knowledge and skills (known as AKS Levels).
These core components, all of which inter-relate, will be used to determine the appropriate definitions for:
task organisation and working practices;
new procedures and technologies, from which future concepts may emerge;
task-related section criteria and selection programmes, and task-related training modules and training programmes;
licensing categories, and licensing standards.
As the basic, front-line human unit, the air-traffic controller's job was analysed down to its fundamental components, which were listed as follows:
"Core tasks" (eg, situation assessment and maintenance of separation): these were identified as having 39 basic components, 16 of them "cognitive" (observation, situation assessment) and the remainder "behavioral" (resulting actions);
"direct-support tasks" (eg, provision of information) consisted of 32 components;
"indirect support tasks" (eg, supervisory and co-ordination tasks) consisted of 36 components.
The 107-function controller's job is the building block of which the whole EATCHIP edifice is to be built.
Source: Flight International
