Editor’s note: This article was first published in December 2010. It describes AENA’s recruitment rules as of 2010 (university degree, AENA basic course, trainee contract). Air navigation in Spain has since passed to ENAIRE (2014) and licensing follows EU rules, so it should not be read as current guidance; the degree and ministry names are pre-Bologna terms.
Since air traffic controllers have been in the news so much, here are the requirements, qualifications, training and aptitudes a person needs to work in this profession.
1. To join this profession at Aena, candidates must meet the following requirements:
- Hold an official university degree (a Spanish diplomado or licenciado degree) or have completed the full first cycle of a long-cycle university degree. In either case, the studies must be official degrees or degrees recognised by the Spanish Ministry of Education and Culture.
- Have passed the basic training course approved by the competent authority and provided by Aena.
- Have obtained an air traffic controller licence and a first local rating at an Aena facility.
2. To get into the basic training course provided by Aena, candidates must pass aptitude tests based on the specific selection profile for this professional group.
3. The content of the basic training course and the system for selecting students for it are approved by the Standing Committee (Comisión Permanente).
Candidates who pass the basic training course will be offered a trainee contract («en prácticas») or similar by Aena, so they can complete the practical training needed to obtain their air traffic controller licence and first local rating.
Trainee contracts of the kind provided for in current regulations may include a probation period of up to six months.
The trainee contract is signed for periods of at least six months. It is extended as needed up to the maximum length allowed for this type of contract, unless:
- The candidate obtains the licence and the corresponding local rating.
- The maximum time limits for obtaining the local rating in question have run out.
- Aena decides to end the employment relationship during the probation period.
Once the candidate has obtained their first local rating, Aena will offer them a permanent, open-ended employment contract, governed by labour law and by the professional collective agreement for air traffic controllers, together with any supplementary rules.
Main abilities, skills and competencies:
- Mental agility to process information and respond effectively in a short space of time.
- Focused and divided attention.
- Self-control under stress.
- Ability to coordinate in operational situations.
- Ability to analyse and make decisions in a short space of time.
- Ability to work in a team.
- Emotional stability.
- Spatial orientation.
- Abstract reasoning.
- Resistance to fatigue.
- Physical and psychological fitness according to International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) standards.
Requirements to apply
Education and qualifications:
By the closing date for applications, candidates must hold an official university degree as a Diplomado, technical engineer or technical architect, or as a Licenciado, engineer or architect, or have completed the full first cycle of a long-cycle university degree.
In either case, the studies must correspond to qualifications officially recognised by the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science, or to foreign degrees officially recognised by the same ministry.
Medical requirements:
- No illness or disability that could suddenly prevent the candidate from performing their duties properly.
- No acute or chronic disease of either eye or its surrounding structures.
Candidates must have:
- Normal visual fields.
- Normal colour perception.
- Distance visual acuity of at least 0.7 in each eye separately, with or without corrective lenses.
- If corrective lenses are used, uncorrected acuity of at least 0.1 in each eye separately, or a refractive error within plus or minus 3 dioptres (spherical equivalent).
- Normal near vision.
- No hearing loss in either ear, tested separately, greater than 35 dB at any of the three frequencies of 500, 1,000 or 2,000 Hz, or greater than 50 dB at 3,000 Hz.
On top of all this, candidates have to pass four tests or exams, each of them eliminatory, whether for falling short on language skills or for failing any of the psychological or functional aptitude tests.
No easy task, that’s for sure.
Further reading
Featured image: Petar Marjanovic, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
