Chairman Rose Says Move Is "Important To The Future" Of The
Program
The NBAA Certified Aviation Manager (CAM) Governing Board met
last week to begin the process of obtaining accreditation for the
CAM program, which identifies qualified professionals to lead
flight departments and companies that use business aircraft. The
goal is to obtain National Commission for Certifying Agencies
(NCCA) accreditation by July 2013.
"Gaining NCCA accreditation is important to the future of the
CAM program," said CAM Governing Board Chairman Scott Rose. "It's
not only the sign of a well managed program; it also ensures the
program follows best practices established for certification
programs across all professions."
Dr. Tom Carney of NBAA Member Purdue University, and past
chairman of the CAM Governing Board, will lead the accreditation
effort. "The accreditation process is a lengthy one." said Carney.
"After nearly a decade of development, the CAM program has finally
reached a level of maturity where accreditation is possible. This
process will validate the strength of the current program."
In addition to accreditation efforts, the CAM Governing Board's
Testing Committee participated in an item writing workshop, where
new questions were developed for the CAM Exam test question bank.
To date the committee has approved a bank of 600 active questions,
from which future CAM Exams are developed. The process was
facilitated by Schroeder Measurement Technologies, Inc. (SMT),
experts in the field of psychometrics, the science of developing
quantitative tests for measuring knowledge, aptitude and other
psychological traits. SMT has been facilitating the CAM Exam
development for the past five years.
Dr. Guy Smith, department chair of Embry-Riddle's Applied
Aviation Science department serves on the CAM Governing Board and
CAM Testing Committee chairman. "I have true faith in the exam
development process" said Smith. "The process is rather
complicated, involving writing, reviewing, editing and committee
approvals of each item. When the exams are assembled, I have full
confidence that they are a good measure of aviation management
skills."
Current CAMs are invited to participate in the next CAM
Governing Board Testing Committee item writing workshop to be held
on Sunday, October 9 in conjunction with the NBAA 64th Annual
Meeting & Convention (NBAA2011) in Las Vegas. CAMs are also
invited to attend the CAM Governing Board meeting, held on Monday,
October 10, as well as a luncheon at the Las Vegas Convention
Center.