ATC and Tower Too busy to conduct training due to staffing issues

[253point9]

I would hope to God that flight instructors know how to do that.

What's a "flight instructor?"

 

[Vance Breese]

What's a "flight instructor?"

A flight instructor is a person who teaches others to operate aircraft.

 

[Half Fast]

Good to know the FAA is on top of the staffing issue.

Coming soon to a control tower near you:

FAA’s diversity push includes focus on hiring people with ‘severe intellectual’ and ‘psychiatric’ disabilities

Fox News Digital has learned the Federal Aviation Administration is pushing a hiring initiative that emphasizes employing people with "missing extremities" and other disabilities.

www.foxnews.com

“Targeted disabilities are those disabilities that the Federal government, as a matter of policy, has identified for special emphasis in recruitment and hiring," the FAA’s website states. "They include hearing, vision, missing extremities, partial paralysis, complete paralysis, epilepsy, severe intellectual disability, psychiatric disability and dwarfism."​

 

[murphey]

Good to know the FAA is on top of the staffing issue.

Coming soon to a control tower near you:

FAA’s diversity push includes focus on hiring people with ‘severe intellectual’ and ‘psychiatric’ disabilities

Fox News Digital has learned the Federal Aviation Administration is pushing a hiring initiative that emphasizes employing people with "missing extremities" and other disabilities.

www.foxnews.com

IMHO your response was uncalled for. Consider how many people are employed by the FAA and how many are ATC. There are specific job requirments for ATC. For example IIRC color blindness is disqualifying. And you gotta get the class 2 physical.

FYI -There are over 45,000 FAA empoyees, of which less than 14,000 are controllers. The rest are accountants, IT, engineers, and so on….

 

[Half Fast]

The rest are accountants, IT, engineers, and so on….

Which jobs are suitable for people with severe intellectual disability?

 

[schmookeeg]

Based on my prior interactions with my FSDO I am surprised that this is a new policy.

 

[ateamer]

Which jobs are suitable for people with severe intellectual disability?

Management.

 

[geezer]

Which part of floor sweeping, window washing, or copy machine feeding requires a full sensor robot to accomplish? At my employer, all those were sadly lacking in the larger skill set. As long as they did not demand promotion to jobs they could not do, they were fine.

For those in such categories, careful what you sue for, you may win. Federal agency in Washington DC, guy fulfilling the bulk copy requests demanded to replace his boss when the position became vacant. They turned him down, he sued, and won. They promoted him, he failed completely at keeping all the other limited intellects working smoothly and completing their assignments on time, and was fired. Sued again, and lost.

This is someone that I knew personally, and his aunt was a close friend until last year, when she died. She helped him financially for a while, but he refused to take "menial positions".

 

[SFDukie]

Which jobs are suitable for people with severe intellectual disability?

Housekeeping. Cafeteria services, catering or the like come to mind.
I have no idea if the FAA directly employs such folks.
At work, one of our cafeteria employees looks to me as if she has trisomy 21- Down’s syndrome.
She does an excellent job of tidying- sweeping up dropped food, etc. she’s pleasant, diligent, seems happy. I’d guess her “mental age” as ten.

 

[Half Fast]

Housekeeping. Cafeteria services, catering or the like come to mind.
I have no idea if the FAA directly employs such folks.
At work, one of our cafeteria employees looks to me as if she has trisomy 21- Down’s syndrome.
She does an excellent job of tidying- sweeping up dropped food, etc. she’s pleasant, diligent, seems happy. I’d guess her “mental age” as ten.

Obviously. I myself have a Downs daughter who works bagging groceries at Publix.

But I doubt those are the type of jobs the FAA is struggling to staff.

 

[SFDukie]

Obviously. I myself have a Downs daughter who works bagging groceries at Publix.

But I doubt those are the type of jobs the FAA is struggling to staff.

if one reads carefully, the linked news article reads like a cheap hit job.

I’m not looking for a fight, not trying to be a know it all.

There’s tons to criticize the FAA, for. It’s a big, rigid bureaucracy.

But-


Nowhere does the FAA verbiage say they’re hiring, or seeking to hire, severely mentally disabled folk to work ATC, or the like. I want- nay expect- them to hire a disabled vet who can’t walk, but is otherwise sharp. Etc.


Read the headline-
Then ask yourself- what do FAA hiring practices have to do with the Alaska Air 1282 decompression? Because the piece keeps harping on that.

 

[253point9]

Which jobs are suitable for people with severe intellectual disability?

See below:

 

[253point9]

Management.

Just realized I duplicated this post.

 

[RussR]

Housekeeping. Cafeteria services, catering or the like come to mind.

In my experience, these type of job functions are typically contracted out. I.e., not actual federal employees.

 

[ElPaso Pilot]

5 minutes of research from source publications:

This is a DOT program https://www.transportation.gov/drc/employment-people-disabilities


The DOT has 55,930 employees as of Nov, 2023; 45,562 of those are with the FAA. https://www.transportation.gov/miss...tration/human-resources/workforce-information

"EEOC requires Federal agencies to set goals for hiring individuals with targeted disabilities, and to monitor and report progress. The annual hiring goal at DOT is 3% of all new hires." https://www.transportation.gov/civil-rights/about-docr/contact-faqs#:~:text=EEOC requires Federal agencies to,3% of all new hires.​

The DOT hired 2601 employees in fiscal year 2021 https://www.transportation.gov/assi...uman-resources/appointment-statistics-fy-2021


That math says in FY2021 the DOT had a goal of 78 hires with disabilities. Adding to a base of nearly 56,000 employees, not counting attrition.


The hiring process for Air Traffic Controllers excludes anyone with "epilepsy, severe intellectual disability, <and/or> psychiatric disability"

[Air Traffic Controller] Applicants must be U.S. citizens, speak English clearly and be no older than 30 (with limited exceptions). They must have either three years of general work experience or four years of education leading to a bachelor’s degree, or a combination of both. Applicants must also pass the Air Traffic Skills Assessment (ATSA). Individuals who are selected are also required to pass all pre-employment requirements, including a medical examination, security investigation, and drug test.  ​

  ​

Selected candidates will train at the FAA Academy in Oklahoma City, Okla. After successful completion of training, they will be placed in a radar facility or air traffic tower. Staffing needs will determine facility assignment, and applicants must be willing to work anywhere in the United States.  ​

  ​

“As aerospace technology continues to grow, we need people to join the FAA to ensure our airspace continues to be the safest in the world,” said FAA Deputy Administrator A. Bradley Mims. “We are looking for a diverse pool of candidates who are ready to rise to the challenge and become air traffic controllers.”​

​

https://www.faa.gov/newsroom/faa-la...xt-diverse-generation-air-traffic-controllers ​

​

But I guess we can go grab the torches and pitchforks after reading a news story with the latest manufactured "Outrage Dejour".

Because it's better to warehouse or push to the streets a small number of people who may have had the ability to find employment pushing a mail cart or managing a database in a federal office?

 

[murphey]

Which jobs are suitable for people with severe intellectual disability?

That was never in the article, and remember, this was Fox News.

Head over the FAA Career website, take a look at the 4 categories of jobs. By the way, most janitorial and maintenance positions are usually contractors.

 

[Checkout_my_Six]

Which jobs are suitable for people with severe intellectual disability?

ground control....maybe approach?

 

[schmookeeg]

Because it's better to warehouse or push to the streets a small number of people who may have had the ability to find employment pushing a mail cart or managing a database in a federal office?

What prevented DOT or FAA from hiring these people prior to being forced to by mandate?

 

[Pinecone]

Obviously. I myself have a Downs daughter who works bagging groceries at Publix.

But I doubt those are the type of jobs the FAA is struggling to staff.

Those are typically contracted at all Fed offices. Even DOD contracts that stuff out these days.