CAAB to introduce e-exams for professional licences

FT ONLINE

The Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh (CAAB) is set to introduce e-examinations for Flight Crew Licence (FCL) and Aircraft Maintenance Licence (AML) in collaboration with the UK CAA International, a senior official said.

A two-member team led by Wing Commander Chowdhury M Zia Ul Kabir, director of Flight Safety and Regulations, CAAB, visited the CAA International (CAAi) on June 20-21 to see the overall demonstration of the e-exam system.

During the visit, they talked with CAAi officials about international obligations regarding control of the question bank and delegation of responsibilities, limitation removal exams, options for payment methods, etc.

Mr Zia said that e-exam solution of CAAi is currently used in more than 25 countries and 100 examination centres.

CAAB expects that CAAi would be able to hold e-exams in Bangladesh about four months after reaching an agreement.

"After establishment, the CAAB examination system for Flight Crew and Maintenance Personnel will get international recognition as exams are conducted and managed by the UK CAA as per the UK standard," he said.

As a result, there is a possibility that CAAB licence-holders will get better job abroad, he said.

Since the question bank is managed and updated by the UK CAA through their research and development wing, the need for CAAB's own question generation and subsequent research and exam preparation will be eliminated, he added.

And the process of producing qualified aviation professionals for the aviation industry of Bangladesh through licensing examination will be accelerated, the CAAB regulation director said.

Besides, holding e-exams in line with government's e-governance concept will remove several administrative layers (registration, exam paper preparation and marking, publication of results, record keeping, etc.) from CAAB's assessment process, leading to greater efficiency, he said.

During the last DGCA meeting in Mongolia in 2017, the introduction of Electronic Regulatory Assessment (EGA) through e-exams was discussed elaborately, which improved the aviation standards alongside simplifying regulatory assessment process, he added.

The CAAB has already adopted the same regulation in the field of AML known as CAAB ANO (AW) Part-66 and intends to do the same for FCL in the future.

So, accessing the same question banks and conducting e-exams will help CAAB improve the overall quality of regulatory assessment, CAAB officials said.

Accordingly, the UK CAA International gave a brief proposal to the CAAB for conducting e-examinations.

It will allow candidates to sit for professional FCL exams (CPL and ATPL for both Aeroplane and Helicopter licences) and/or AML exams.

The system will cover booking, management, payment, delivery and results notification.

It will be accessible by the CAAB, authorised ATOs (Approved Training Organisation) and candidates to book, pay and sit for exams on the CAAB premises and see results online.

The CAAi will provide access to question banks managed and updated by the UK CAA, ensuring that they always meet the UK, EASA or local NAA standards as required.