Africa & Middle East Ghana Introduces Quarterly Webinars

zby Kwamena Agyei Halm, Air Traffic Controller

& Member GHATCA Technical Committee

Marshallers had one or two aircraft to direct in a whole day, dispatchers had no flights to dispatch, same for loaders, maintenance engineers, pilots and Air Traffic Controllers. At the professional ATC level, onthe-job-training came to a halt due to low traffic volumes and national directives to restructure working rosters to reduce human contact due to covid-19.

Cost-cutting and safety measures such as the suspension of foreign travels by public and civil servants were announced by the government.

On the opening of the airports, some aviation practitioners were faced with issues such as lack of recency and deferment of required refresher training which in some cases were done in foreign countries.

The new normal, however, shifted most of these training seminars organized by ICAO, IFATCA and CANSO online allowing more people to partake in them. The return to normal operations (RNO) in Ghana required a local industry-wide platform to refresh our knowledge base, to learn new things and to share experiences. It is for these reasons that the Ghana Air Traffic Controllers Association (GHATCA) introduced the quarterly technical webinar series (TWS).

According to GHATCA President Mr Francis Armah-Mensah, the Executive Committee decided to introduce the TWS to create an industry wide learning platform to build capacity of practitioners, exchange ideas and empower the industry through the recovery process and beyond.

He also indicated that the long term objective is to enhance the safety consciousness of industry practitioners which include Air Traffic Controllers. He further indicated that GHATCA, a key stakeholder in the aviation industry in Ghana, is creating this platform to rally industry professionals to be able to discuss future developments in the aviation industry in Ghana.

The Technical committee, led by Mr Benjamin Assare-Mokwah, was tasked by the GHATCA Executive committee to organize the maiden quarterly webinar. After robust discussions the technical committee settled on the zoom application as the

medium of delivering the webinars. The technical committee also decided on a sole resource person to discuss safety management in aviation with emphasis on positive safety culture for the inaugural webinar.

The first webinar, was inaugurated on 18th June 2021 by the Deputy Director General (Technical Division) of the Ghana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) Mr Daniel Acquah. ATS Management and Sister Unions in GCAA delivered support and encouragement messages to GHATCA.

The resource person for the inaugural webinar was Mr William Wilberforce Amoako, The Safety, Standards and Quality Assurance Manager of GCAA. He discussed the concepts of safety, definitions of safety, the 4 pillars of SMS and safety culture.

After the inaugural webinar the technical committee reviewed the events that transpired and took note of both high and low points in the organization and conduct of the webinar. The committee also decided to discuss the implementation of just culture in aviation organizations in the second webinar. The second episode of the GHATCA quarterly technical webinar series (TWS) took place on Friday 24th September 2021. The committee invited four resource persons from various organizations across the continent to share their experiences in the implementation of ‘Just Culture’ in their various organizations. The resource persons invited were: Ms Boni Dibate (Regional Director African Affairs CANSO), Mr Matita Tsabalala (Human Factors specialist, ATNS, South Africa), Captain Victor Aryeetey (Head of Safety, Africa world Airlines) and Mr Derek Lartey (ATC Safety Team, GCAA). Both webinars were moderated by Ms Alissar Kalmoni.

Technical support for both webinars was provided by the IT department of GCAA and the GHATCA Technical team. Publicity for the events were largely done through social media by GHATCA members with some support from GCAA corporate communications.

Participation in both webinars was very satisfactory. A total of 230 people joined both webinars from 22 countries globally including Cape Verde, Nigeria, Algeria, Togo, Sao Tome, Thailand, Angola, Germany and the Comoros Island participated in. The majority of attendees were, predictably, from the Ghanaian Aviation Industry.

In both webinars, participants were asked to submit questions through the Q&A tab on the zoom app. The questions that could not be answered live due to time constraints were later answered and emailed to all participants. Resources and learning materials used by the resource persons are shared with participants via email as well. A post webinar survey is also administered after each webinar to further involve the participants in the conduct and learning areas for future webinars. The survey results are a useful tool that guides the Technical committee in what topics they recommend to the GHATCA Executive Committee for subsequent webinars.

To end this article, I quote Mr Armah-Mensah, GHATCA President, at the review meeting after the second webinar “It took a lot of hard work to get to produce the first two webinars, it will take a lot more hard work from not just the technical committee but the entire GHATCA membership to sustain this good initiative”. y