Pilot Essential Gateway... Recruiting Experts for 'Aviation English Oral Proficiency Certification' Training Course

Aircraft are parked on the apron at Incheon International Airport. Photo by Mun Ho-nam munonam@

[Asia Economy Reporter Moon Jiwon] The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport announced on the 26th that it will operate a four-week Aviation English Proficiency Test for Aviation (EPTA) expert training course from June 21 to July 16.

EPTA is an English qualification certification system for personnel engaged in piloting, air traffic control, and radio communication duties on international flights. It was introduced by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and is operated as a national self-administered examination system.

South Korea has been operating its own examination system since 2006. Since 2019, a computer-based test has been introduced and entrusted to the Korea Transportation Safety Authority.

The test content consists of a 'listening and speaking' evaluation method where candidates respond to various situations that pilots and others may encounter during their duties. Grades are assigned based on pronunciation, vocabulary, sentence structure, comprehension, response ability, and fluency.

Grades are divided into six levels from Level 1 to Level 6, with Level 6 being the highest. Pilots and air traffic controllers must obtain at least Level 4 to engage in international aviation duties.

Before COVID-19, an average of about 3,500 people took the test annually over the past three years, but the number of test-takers slightly decreased last year due to the pandemic. However, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport views this as a temporary phenomenon caused by COVID-19 and expects the demand for the test to increase once the aviation industry recovers.

Domestically, about 20 EPTA evaluators are active, but considering the annual 5% increase in test-takers, there is a need to discover EPTA experts who can perform evaluation and new test question development tasks.

Accordingly, the Ministry will operate training for English education and English evaluation experts to cultivate EPTA experts. The course is completely free, and selected individuals will complete a total of 67 hours of training over four weeks through online and offline sessions.

After completion, if they pass the evaluator screening criteria, they will be appointed as EPTA evaluators at the Korea Transportation Safety Authority and can serve as evaluators for one year.

Applicants must fill out and submit the application form available on the Transportation Safety Authority website from the 31st to June 10. Evaluators will assess work experience, degrees, and nationally certified English test scores to select the final 10 candidates.

Yu Kyungsoo, Director of Aviation Safety Policy at the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, said, "Given the nature of aviation work where English is the standard language, verifying the language proficiency of pilots and air traffic controllers is very important for ensuring aviation safety," adding, "We ask for active applications from those who specialize in English and have an interest in the aviation field."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.