Attracting new talent and retaining world class aviation experts to offer human resource capacity to States has been and remains an integral and strategic responsibility of the Technical Cooperation Bureau (TCB).
Field Project Experts advise and assist in the development of systems and procedures to strengthen the oversight capabilities of the recipient States to meet their regulatory obligations as prescribed in ICAO’s Standards and Recommended Practices (SARPs) and the provisions of ICAO Annexes to the Convention. Their work contributes to the fulfillment of national, regional and international obligations and sustains the growth of international civil aviation systems.
A ROSTER OF 2,500 INTERNATIONAL EXPERTS
Of strategic importance is the recognition of the necessity to maintain the currency of TCB’s roster of candidates and make available, at short notice, a core team of experts to provide support to the States. The Field Personnel Section (FPS) maintains an active roster of over 2,500 international experts who have been screened, interviewed and confirmed to be qualified and ready for deployment.
Through regular updates, the profiles of the roster candidates are confirmed to meet the minimum requirements in specific fields of specialization advertised in the prospective posts. TCB runs the prospective posts throughout the year to offer applicants continuous opportunities for consideration and ensure consistency in the supply of qualified experts. TCB experts have diverse, unique and specialized expertise in aviation, classified under the following broad administrative and technical categories in the roster:
- Civil Aviation Administration
- Field Project Administration and Coordination
- Aircraft Accident Investigation/Prevention
- Airworthiness, Aeronautical Meteorology
- Air Law
- Airport Planning Development and Operations
- Air Transport Finance and Economics
- Personnel Licensing
- Air Traffic Services
- Airline Management and Airline Ground Operations
- Aviation Electronics
- Flight Operations
CALL FOR EXPERTS
Within TCB, efforts are being made to identify and add fresh talent to its active roster. A continuous process of screening applications to prospective posts advertised is conducted throughout the year. This increases the threshold of talent in the active roster that is drawn from the global arena. Specifically, experts within the 30–45 age bracket and women from all regions are encouraged to apply for prospective positions. Highly skilled experts, who constitute 63% of the pool, remain invaluable to TCB. Their experience is an essential component of the ICAO Technical Cooperation programme’s success and strengthens the resource base. However, we must call upon them to support the development of a critical mass of next generation talent who will actively transition the expansion of global aviation.
Strategies have been put in place to:
- broaden the scope of the search for aviation experts by engaging stakeholders in talent search campaigns to increase the availability of experts in the TCB roster;
- encourage recipient States to make provisions for engaging national project counterparts, in parallel with internationally recruited experts, with the intent of developing a crop of national experts to facilitate ease of succession and transfer of knowledge and technology for continued progress of State activities;
- enhance synergies and strengthening partnerships and cooperation between ICAO and stakeholders to reinforce sharing, complementarity of technological know-how, institutional capacity and talent management to realize common goals and aspirations;
- improve performance-based productivity levels of the existing experts and engage in transformative initiatives to attract and retain talent to support the growth and success in the global air transport sphere; and
- encourage mentoring programmes for technological and knowledge transfer and the facilitation of the development of homegrown talent for sustainability, particularly in member States who experience constraints in technical capacity, to effectively discharge their mandates.
Prospective experts seeking to join the Technical Cooperation Roster of Candidates are encouraged to submit their applications directly through the following mediums:
ICAO Employment Website:
- Career Portal
- TCB Field Projects
- Prospective Job Listings
LinkedIn: ICAO TCB FRU UNIT
Field Personnel Section Email: fps@icao.int
Field Recruitment Unit Email: fru@icao.int
Field Personnel Administration Email: fpa@icao.int
About the author:
Grace Okungu is a Human Resources management professional who is currently Chief, Field Personnel Section of the Technical Cooperation Bureau in ICAO. With close to 30 years of experience in Strategic HR management, programme design and capacity building, she has been engaged in providing leadership, managerial and advisory services in HR management to organizations across Africa, Europe and the Americas at the strategic, operational and policy levels. Organizations served prior to joining ICAO in 2014 include: the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority, East African Community, Arusha–Tanzania and the Preparatory