Aviation experts gather in capital for a day of connecting and learning

Representatives from NZ’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) and Aspeq gathered with a group of subject matter experts (SMEs) in aviation at Te Papa on Wellington’s waterfront for the day-long event.

Manager of Assessment Services, Duncan Macgregor, said it was a fantastic opportunity to strengthen connections between the people responsible for delivering world-class assessment services in civil aviation.

“Workshops like this are a vital part of Aspeq’s process to provide ongoing training to our SMEs to ensure we are delivering the highest quality of questions to the candidates,” he adds.

Aspeq employs over 150 SMEs across New Zealand, Australia and the world, whose expertise align with the wide range of topics that Aspeq administers exams and tests on.

“From a technical perspective, our experts cover topics from aviation to electrical, plumbing and midwifery. We also have non-technical experts who specialise in editing, proofreading and graphic design.

“Every assessment involves input from a number of highly specialised experts. Our SMEs are critical to ensuring our questions give candidates the best opportunity to demonstrate their competency, through ensuring they are technically correct, at the right level, as well as consistent and clear.”

The workshop was especially important given the global nature of Aspeq’s SME team.

“Our SMEs can work from wherever they are in the world, which means that most of our interactions are online, so it’s fantastic to have an opportunity to connect face-to-face.”

As well as a chance to connect, the workshop provided refresher training on developing new questions and performance monitoring processes. The group also discussed how to prepare for future challenges and opportunities in the sector.

Duncan was pleased to hear the workshops’ participants found the day insightful and enjoyable, with one attendee saying, “Thanks for all your work in organising and running the workshop!  It was really great to catch up and meet everyone - in some cases meet other SMEs for the first time. All the presentations and discussions were very interesting and worthwhile, often just reinforcing what we should have known anyway, but very interesting to hear what Aspeq management is thinking about and focussing on. Well done.”

Following the success of this event, Aspeq is committed to running SME workshops like this one annually across the range of clients and industries Aspeq works with.

“Workshops like this are invaluable for keeping Aspeq at the cutting edge of delivering high-quality assessment services for our global clients,” says Duncan.