What is Competency-Based Training and Assessment (CBTA), and why is aviation embracing it?

The definitions, in ICAO’s words

The vocabulary comes from ICAO. It is precise, and the original definitions are worth seeing. A competency is "a dimension of human performance that is used to reliably predict successful performance on the job"; it "is manifested and observed through behaviours that mobilize the relevant knowledge, skills and attitudes to carry out activities or tasks under specified conditions" (ICAO Doc 9868, PANS-TRG). Competence, the eleventh of ICAO’s principles, means demonstrating all the required competencies together to a specified standard.

Three smaller terms underpin the method. An observable behaviour is "a single role-related behaviour that can be observed and may or may not be measurable". A performance criterion is the unit of assessment: an observable behaviour, the conditions under which it is demonstrated, and a competency standard, "a level of performance that is defined as acceptable". Put those three together and you have something an instructor can look for, a crew member can recognise in themselves, and a training department can measure.

For cabin crew, the reference is ICAO Doc 10002, the Cabin Crew Safety Training Manual. The second edition (2020, corrigenda 2021) describes seven competencies and fifty-three observable behaviours, and sets out the eleven CBTA principles from PANS-TRG. That framework is an important starting point for cabin crew CBTA projects in Europe today.

Why the sector made the shift

The shift did not simply emerge from a learning theory. It came in three steps, each driven by evidence.

The first was Crew Resource Management. The 1979 NASA workshop from which CRM emerged examined accident reports, and the findings were uncomfortable: the accidents were largely failures in working together and making decisions under pressure, rather than a lack of technical knowledge. The second was the American Advanced Qualification Program of 1990, which allowed operators to replace prescribed hours with demonstrated skills, and made that approach available to flight attendants from the outset. The third was evidence-based training for pilots: an IATA initiative launched in 2007 that analysed line observations from thousands of flights, accident and incident reports, and flight data from more than a million flights, asking which competencies really made the difference. ICAO published it in 2013 as Doc 9995 and further developed the broader CBTA principles in the 2020 edition of PANS-TRG.

Behind those three steps lies an older idea, mastery learning: fix the standard and let the time vary. A training system built the other way round, on fixed hours and variable outcomes (most conventional training), risks producing little more than an attendance register. That register is a list of dates. It shows participation, but does not in itself prove competence.

What changes in practice

For an organisation, CBTA changes four things.

The programme is built around a competency framework that guides the syllabus: domains, competencies, observable behaviours, and the conditions and standard for each required behaviour. Theory still has a place, but it serves those behaviours rather than forming the basis of the course.

Simulated situations play an important role in training. Scenarios are designed so that the behaviours in the framework need to be demonstrated, and learning during the activity is deepened in the debriefing.

Assessment goes beyond simply measuring. An instructor observes, considers what they saw against the criteria and reaches a judgement; the score is a judgement, not a sum of ticked boxes. The people making those judgements therefore need to be aligned, with a check on inter-rater reliability and a concordance programme supported by figures, appropriate to the scale and context of the programme. Every successful implementation comes with data and calibrated instructors, not a framework alone. The competency framework is the easy part.

And the organisation gains data it may not previously have collected systematically enough: multiple observations in multiple contexts, by competency, over time. These can help identify weaknesses in a fleet, a base or a course at an early stage.

Where cabin crew in Europe stands

For pilots, a regulatory framework exists: EASA introduced evidence-based training through Regulation (EU) 2020/2036 and ORO.FC.231. An equivalent framework does not yet exist for cabin crew. The rules currently in force are Regulation (EU) No 1178/2011, including Appendix 1 to Part-CC and its nine subject areas; Regulation (EU) No 965/2012, including ORO.CC.110 and the requirement for crew members to be competent to perform their assigned tasks; and the EASA guidelines for initial training from 2022, with their ninety-five recommended hours. EASA has not yet written binding CBTA regulations for cabin crew. For Dangerous Goods training, the revised training provisions became mandatory on 1 January 2023; ICAO Doc 10147 provides the accompanying guidance.

For cabin crew in Europe, CBTA is therefore a choice made by the airline or training organisation, rather than a requirement. Applying CBTA does not replace existing regulatory training and approval requirements. That is precisely why the framework alone settles nothing. An organisation that copies Doc 10002 word for word has a vocabulary; whether its programme also covers Appendix 1 to Part-CC, whether its assessing instructors agree with each other, and whether its data says anything useful remain open questions. A framework adopted without that analysis is not wrong, but can quickly become conventional training in new packaging.

What to do with this

If you lead training, the useful first step is not a new framework, but an honest look at current methods: what your records really demonstrate about competence, and what they demonstrate only about attendance or theoretical knowledge. Competence is a prediction about performance in circumstances you cannot stage-manage; the question is whether your evidence supports that prediction. That review is what a CBTA readiness scan does. If the competency framework is already in place and the uncertainty lies with the assessing instructors, start with assessor development. And if you are designing from scratch, start with the required performance and develop scenarios and assessors alongside the framework, rather than stopping at the poster: training design and a pilot programme.