Since September 2018, Entry Point North Belgium provides ATS training to students at our newest training site. Looking back on the first year of operation, we see a successful start-up of the academy where many air traffic controllers and ATSEPs have received their education.
Entry Point North established the Belgian academy as a joint venture together with skeyes, the Belgian air navigation service provider (ANSP). Entry Point North Belgium is located within the vicinity of Brussels Airport and is equipped with state-of-the-art training equipment and simulators: ninety radar/pilot positions (NorthSim/BEST/EUROCAT), five 180° simulators, one 360° Tower 3D simulator and forty radar/pilot positions.
The training is based on Entry Point North’s training philosophy and methodology, and is delivered in close cooperation with skeyes. The number of employees has been steadily increasing over the past year with currently twenty multi-national, multi-lingual and dedicated on-site staff making training possible at Entry Point North Belgium. The full-time staff is complemented with over one hundred part-time instructors from skeyes and support from our headquarters in Malmö. It is this strong partnership between all parties involved that has allowed the academy to develop its full potential.
In the past year, Entry Point North Belgium has proven itself to be an excellent tool for skeyes to provide its staff with training. The academy has successfully delivered Initial, Unit, Continuation, Development, Technical Engineering, Safety and Meteorology training for ab-initio and operational air traffic controllers as well as other specialists.
Currently, 28 students are in initial training. Additionally, a total of 313 air traffic controllers participated in refresher and conversion training courses and 117 air traffic controllers took part in various development courses. ATSEP training is in high demand as well, with 48 skeyes staff members participating in basic training and 20 staff members participating in development courses.
In addition to providing training to skeyes staff, Entry Point North Belgium has delivered training to external customers. A total of sixteen participants from ANA Lux (L’Administration de la navigation aérienne Luxembourg), LVNL (Air Traffic Control the Netherlands) and the Belgian Department of Defense have taken part in training at our academy. As Entry Point North Belgium is already establishing itself as an attractive central training provider for the BeNeLux region, we are looking forward to many more successful years to come with training provided to course participants from both skeyes and various external customers/partners.
“It is LVNL’s objective to increase the capacity and flexibility regarding the education of our air traffic controllers, and we see a good opportunity to achieve this by sending students to Entry Point North Belgium. All the way from the initial contact to the actual start of the new students on the course, communication with Entry Point North Group has been very pleasant. Its staff has shown a lot of flexibility, professionalism and engagement to meet our needs,”
– says Emiel Meijer, Training Expert at LVNL.