Is Sofema Aviation Services / SofemaOnline Approved by EASA to Deliver Regulatory Training?

Comment by Steve Bentley – CEO of Sofema Aviation Services (SAS) www.sassofia.com – Your Aviation Regulatory Training Provider

Introduction

We are asked this question with regularity (unfortunately) – Is Sofema Aviation Services / SofemaOnline Approved by EASA to Deliver Regulatory Training?

Why unfortunately? – Because often the person asking is a Compliance or Safety Manager or even a Nominated Post Holder operating within the European Union and working for an Operator, or AMO / CAMO or an Airport or an Approved Training Organisation (ATO) or Maintenance Training Organisation (MTO).

So, what is the “Concern”?

Simply the concern is that the person who is asking this question should know better! (means to become a post holder in the first place they should have sufficient understanding of the EASA regulatory environment to know that apart from Part 21 Subpart J – EASA does not issue any training authorisation and certainly not for regulatory training).

How to reach such a serious position within an organisation but have such a knowledge gap and what does this say about the regulatory authority in the particular country (means where are the standards and where is the local support & oversight?)

Reality Check – not only does EASA “NOT” provide any approval to regulatory training organisations, neither does the Competent Authority of the country in which the organisation operates (or proposes to operate).

Sofema Aviation Services (SAS) www.sassofia.com  and SofemaOnline (SOL) www.sofemaonline.com  have been delivering regulatory and vocational training since 2008 and have issued more than 26 000 certificates to satisfied clients. Currently, SAS offers over 550 classroom courses and SOL offers over 200 online courses and packages.

So how do we know the training is ok?

It’s a very good question and this is what we advise our clients.

What are the organisational obligations regarding EASA Regulatory Compliant Organisation Courses?

Under the EASA system, it is the responsibility of the organization to ensure that any training is compliant not just with EASA regulations but also with the internal competence management and oversight requirements of the Organization. All SofemaOnline training courses are based on material provided by Sofema Aviation Services (SAS) www.sassofia.com and are intended to be fully compliant with the regulations.

However please note it is for the receiving organisation to ensure that the material meets your needs. To support this obligation, if you sign up 5 or more delegates for a single training we will also provide additional access for a nominated quality auditor to assess the training. (In this way you as an organisation can ensure the training meets your expectations, in addition, it will enable you to demonstrate you have audited the material which is part of the 145 audit program).

Such access will be provided before you pay for the training (we are confident that our training is compliant and we want to support you in the best way possible).

If you have less than 5 persons who wish to take the training we suggest you initially pay for a single course and use it for the purpose of internal approval.

Next Steps

For further communications please contact either SAS or SOL using the following email team@sassofia.com