Airport & Aviation

Samen met bedrijven, docententeams en studenten experimenteert het Practoraat met CBTA om kennis en ervaring op te doen. Het Practoraat begeleidt dit d.m.v. voorlichting, ondersteuning bij curriculum ontwerp, pilot projecten met en bij bedrijven, en het aanreiken van wetenschappelijke kennis en inzichten. Op die manier ontwikkelt het Practoraat van MBO College Airport zich verder als hét kennisinstituut voor Competency Based opleiden in de luchtvaart.

Na het, door het practoraat georganiseerde, internationale symposium is met bedrijven op Schiphol besloten om gezamenlijk op te trekken en te anticiperen op deze ‘paradigm-shift’ naar CBTA in de luchtvaart.

Daarnaast werkt het practoraat met docenten uit de verschillende teams en medewerkers uit de luchtvaartbedrijven aan het ontwikkelen van een ‘Competency Passport for Aviation’ om het Leven Lang Leren & Ontwikkelen binnen de luchtvaart te stimuleren, structureren, faciliteren en documenteren.

Op deze manier streeft het Practoraat er naar om samen met de bedrijven future-proof curricula te kunnen ontwikkelen voor de luchtvaart en dé toonaangevende vakschool voor de luchtvaart te blijven.

Om de ontwikkeling tot kennisinstituut een wetenschappelijk fundament te geven, doet de practor promotieonderzoek naar CBTA in de luchtvaart aan de TU Delft, waarbij de onderwijscontext van MBO College Airport een centrale rol speelt. Door onderzoeksprojecten gezamenlijk met docenten van het college uit te voeren, kan het Practoraat tevens bijdragen aan docentprofessionalisering.

Hieronder vind je publicaties die gedaan zijn vanuit dit practoraat:

1. Towards new educational standards for aircraft maintenance:

Analysing transversal competencies on industry safety priorities and assessment challenges.
Cogent Education, 13(1), 2629672.

• Door: Kes, L., Saunders-Smits, G. N., & Specht, M. M. (2026).
• De bevindingen uit dit onderzoek brengen de focus naar de ontwikkeling van nieuwe, op competenties gebaseerde, educatieve programma’s voor luchtvaartonderhoud.
• Bekijk het onderzoek: tandfonline.com (Article: 2629672 | Published online: 18 Feb 2026)

2. Valid Assessment of Transversal Competencies a Aircraft Maintenance:

Insights from Focus Groups with Industry Stakeholders

• Door: Kes, L., B. S. Pietersma, G. N. Saunders -Smits, and M. M. Specht. 2025.
• Bekijk hier het onderzoek → zie pag. 26 t/m 45.
  Dit onderzoek verscheen in ATEC Journal #47 – Aviation Technician Education Council
• Bekijk hier de Conference Paper (2 maart 2026)
  Dit is een product van het practoraat. Practor Lydia en projectleider Ben Pietersma presenteerden het onderzoek op de 20th INTED (International Technology, Education and Development Conference) in Valencia.  Aan het onderzoek van deze conference paper hebben behalve internationale stakeholders ook studenten en medewerkers van het MBO College Airport van ROC van Amsterdam meegewerkt en partners van Schiphol. 
• Zie ook: practoraten.nl | Nieuws: Edubadges en intensief onderzoeksproject studenten vliegtuigtechniek

Lees hieronder de conclusie van het onderzoek (in het Engels):
In this study, we aimed to identify valid and feasible methods for assessing OBs 11.4, 8.1 and 8.12 from ICAO’s Competency Framework for Aircraft Maintenance.

Design Criteria
The design criteria are addressed by research question 1: What are the design criteria for valid assessment of communication and teamwork? Based on the results, the following criteria are outlined.

Portfolio with multiple assessment datapoints
Using a portfolio with multiple performance assessments is preferred over one final summative assessment. It is deemed more reliable, more transparent, and it enhances self-paced learning. The latter is not only because it reinforces ownership by the student, but also because it supports student-level interventions by the instructor. Finally, it is considered less stressful for students. Furthermore, the attributed value of a portfolio went beyond obtaining a license and was considered a useful tool for documenting lifelong learning and development post-licensing.

Requirements for portfolio implementation
Most of the conditions suggested by the participants concerned standardization and oversight. In essence, it comes down to having solid criteria and a standardized method for collecting, processing, and analyzing assessment data and how this can be used for audits by the regulators. However, standardization was not only emphasized for oversight purposes, but also for (international) transferability among organizations. To a lesser extent, didactic requirements and aspects regarding objectivity are deemed important: The level of assessments should match the training stages applying increasing complexity in a holistic training environment, and instructors and assessors should be objective and unbiased.

Textual Rubrics
The rubrics demonstrated in tables 4, 5, and 6 are considered very clear and useful both for training and assessing the OBs of focus. Although the rubrics are fully narrative and may leave room for interpretation, this approach is preferred over quantitative scoring due to the nature of the competencies. Moreover, the rubrics were seen as an effective way to address concerns about objectivity and standardization. However, clear guidelines for the teacher and assessor are needed to support the correct scoring of performance.

Approaches to operationalize communication and teamwork
To elicit the demonstration of these competencies for assessment purposes, several approaches were deemed both valid and feasible. The approaches all indicate a form of simulation and can be discerned by tasks, scenarios, and environments but were also described by a combination of these aspects.

Tasks
All participants agreed that training and assessment should be done through daily jobs and tasks. For these competencies, tasks involving inspection and troubleshooting were deemed suitable, preferably those that can not be done by one person alone and that challenge students.

Scenarios
All participants considered role-play a strong approach to embed the tasks in meaningful scenarios. More detailed examples to create a realistic context for students are simulating line maintenance events, such as communication scenarios with pilots during AOG, simulating a supervising role for the student leading an A-check, or doing shift handover. Also, scenarios using the MEL and ETOPS are considered useful for assessing communication and teamwork. In general, it was considered essential to combine tasks and scenarios that require collaboration and mutual reliance.

Assessment Methods
The assessment methods are addressed by research question 2: What assessment methods are feasible for all stakeholders to summatively assess the Observable Behaviors? To fill the portfolio, a combination of self-assessments, instructor assessments, and peer-assessments were preferred. For each method, a few conditions were outlined.

For instructor-assessments the objectivity and unbiased attitude of the instructor was stressed, along with using clear rubrics. Additionally, it was required that instructors were properly trained. For self-assessments it was considered essential that students start with practicing this in an early stage to train the reflective nature of this method. For peer-assessments it was also important for students to start practicing this early to avoid bias. Feedback should be provided in a small and safe setting with at least one instructor present.

The next step is to implement these findings in a real training and assessment program to evaluate their effectiveness. As the requirements identified are largely generic, their applicability can be explored across various contexts. Further research is needed to examine the consistency of these requirements when adapted to different aviation maintenance training settings, ideally at an international level.