The Head of Training is the nominated person accountable to the authority for all training delivered at an ATO — syllabus compliance, instructor standardisation and student progress. The FAA Part 141 equivalent role is the Chief Instructor. Authorities must approve appointments to the post.
The Head of Training is the nominated postholder accountable to the authority for all training delivered at an ATO: syllabus compliance, instructor standardisation and supervision, student progress oversight, and recommendations for tests. The appointment requires authority acceptance based on qualifications and experience, and the role carries personal regulatory accountability — the HT signs for the training system. The FAA Part 141 parallel is the Chief Instructor.
Deputies and assistant roles distribute the workload in larger organisations, but the accountability remains singular — which is why HT succession is an approval event, not an HR formality.
Why it matters for flight schools
The HT role is a bandwidth problem disguised as a compliance role: every test recommendation, standardisation issue and struggling student theoretically crosses the HT's desk, and in a growing school the desk drowns. The difference between an HT who supervises and one who rubber-stamps is almost entirely the quality of the oversight data they work from.
How FlightLogger handles it
FlightLogger gives the HT live oversight — progress against syllabus per student, instructor activity and standardisation signals, test-readiness evidence — so accountability rests on data rather than sampling and hope.
Frequently asked questions
What qualifications must a Head of Training hold?
Authority acceptance criteria under Part-ORA: relevant licences and instructional experience proportionate to the organisation's training scope, plus management capability. The authority formally accepts the appointment — and its termination.
Can the HT role be combined with other functions?
In smaller organisations, proportionality allows combinations — but not with functions that break independence, and never at the cost of the role actually being performed. An HT title without HT bandwidth is an audit finding in waiting.