Second-Career Training for Air Traffic Controllers Should Be Discontinued

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) employs over 18,000 air traffic controllers. In the interest of aviation safety, controllers must meet specific health and performance standards or be removed from duty. Since limited opportunities exist outside the government for the specialized knowledge and experience of controllers, Congress established the Second Career Program in 1972 to provide air traffic controllers with up to 2 years of training for a new career.

About 50 percent of controllers eligible for the Second Career Program have declined training. An analysis in three FAA regions showed that only 7 percent of the controllers completed training and obtained employment in new careers for which they trained under the program. Program costs averaged $370,000 for each successful program participant. About 98 percent of the controllers removed from duty had mental and physical impairments; many were the victims of advancing age. Most of the controllers removed from duty chose to use income security and training benefits available under other federal programs rather than begin a second career. In addition, controllers were not adequately counseled by FAA, and no effort was made to find employment within the federal government.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

Director: No director on record Team: No team on record Phone: No phone on record