Flight Attendant Training documentation
Flight attendant training is extensive and while conducting excellent training is of high importance, so is the documentation of that training. Regardless of how well you train your crewmembers, if you don’t document that training correctly, you may not be in compliance with the regulator’s documentation requirements. Here are some example forms to inspire you for the creation of forms you need to properly document all flight attendant training you conduct. You’ll notice that aside from the primary categories of Basic Indoc, Aircraft Ground, Emergency Training and Emergency Drills, there are training subjects broken out from what used to be considered within the primary categories. This is done because of the regulatory requirement to document those subjects independently. Yes, at one time Hazmat, CRM, First Aid, and Security used to be under primary categories. I won’t guess the reason why certain subjects are collectively part of flight attendant training but now documented as a stand-alone course, but whatever the reason, it must be done. These forms are useable as-is with minor modification, or they can be used for cross-reference as you create your own forms to ensure you document the required elements of training for your records.
All training record elements in one Excel sheet
This one file contains all of the following forms:
- Attendance form
- Basic Indoctrination
- Aircraft Ground
- Emergency Training
- Emergency Drills
- First Aid
- Crew Resource Management
- Dangerous Goods
- Security
- Competency Check
- Supplemental/Remedial Training
- Instructor/Supervisor Training
- Training Summary
- End of Course Feedback
Supplemental/Remedial Training Form – why?
Sometimes, you may have additional training that needs to be performed and recorded between recurrent training/CQ cycles. Other times, you may have an underperforming crewmember or a crewmember that needs additional, specific training due to performance issues in a certain area(s). When they are brought in for additional training, that training needs to be recorded.
Course feedback – value to improvement
It’s a worthwhile time investment to request and evaluate student feedback regarding the training they received. This helps you, the inflight training department, perform continual improvement of your training program. Yes, there are going to be complainers that just hate coming in for recurrent/CQ, and there are those that after x-years, they think they don’t need recurrent/cq, that it’s a waste of their time. However, those that give honest feedback can provide you insight to what areas are being taught very well, what subjects could use improvements, and the performance of your instructors. Student feedback about the instructor is very helpful for instructor self-improvement or can be used as an opportunity to create or improve your instructor training/mentor program. There may be deficiencies in how you qualify and sign off instructors to work independently. Notwithstanding the instructor that just doesn’t work out, student feedback will help your training department improve, provided you’re receptive to the feedback and willing to consider valid suggestions.
As for initial training feedback, you’re receiving both a clean slate view of the training and from new hire flight attendants from other airlines, you may receive some good suggestions on content and/or instructional delivery methods that other airlines use. Anonymous student feedback is a useful way to improve the training department. Remember, it can be difficult to self-evaluate since we can’t always see our errors or opportunities for improvement.