Is Your Team Trained for the Safety Future You're Expecting?
Why 2026 Should Be the Year You Re-Examine SMS Competency
When many of today’s aviation leaders first stepped into SMS roles, the training landscape looked very different. Options were limited. Resources were scattered. And most of us learned by stitching together whatever we could find.
I still remember my own early days in safety management. There were no comprehensive SMS Manager courses in Canada, so I went searching for anything remotely applicable - eventually taking ISO 9001 Quality Assurance and Lead Auditor training through the Canadian Standards Association, along with ISO 31000 Risk Management. It was valuable, but it wasn’t purpose-built for aviation, and it certainly wasn’t an easy path.
The industry has evolved enormously since then. Expectations are higher. Regulators, insurers, boards, and the public all demand stronger evidence of SMS maturity. Yet in many organizations, SMS responsibilities still land on people who haven’t been given formal, structured training to match those expectations.
For executives, this isn’t a training problem. It’s a risk problem.
Training Is Executive Infrastructure - Not Annual Budget Dust
Every airport has people whose responsibilities directly shape safety outcomes:
SMS Managers
Supervisors and managers with safety oversight
Leads overseeing inspection, maintenance, wildlife, or airside ops
QA personnel
Emergency management coordinators
Anyone involved in hazard identification, risk analysis, or investigations
These roles influence operational, financial, and reputational risk. And yet, many individuals in these roles have only “picked things up over time.” Some inherited the role. Others learned through trial-and-error. Few have had the chance to build a complete, structured foundation in modern Safety Management Systems.
That gap becomes very visible when:
audits surface repeat findings,
CAPAs stall,
hazard registers go stale,
investigations lack depth, or
supervisors don’t feel confident guiding teams through safety conversations.
Executives are accountable for ensuring their people are competent - not just assigned.
Three Questions Executives Should Ask This Week
1. How are we identifying training requirements for staff with SMS responsibilities?
Do you have a competency matrix?
Are expectations clear for supervisors, managers, and specialists?
Are new hires explicitly onboarded into SMS, or left to figure it out?
If training requirements aren’t defined, competency becomes guesswork.
2. How do we know that our SMS training is effective?
Does training change how people work, or just add certificates to a file?
After training, do you see improvements in:
report quality
risk ratings
CAPA follow-through
audit readiness
safety conversations
engagement with SMS tools
Evaluation is the missing step in most organizations.
3. Is training driving continuous improvement, or simply maintaining the status quo?
A mature SMS grows stronger over time - but only if the people running it do too.
Executives should be asking:
Are we reducing repeat findings?
Are risk assessments becoming more consistent?
Are investigations identifying root causes more effectively?
Is data being used to inform decisions?
Are our managers confident in their SMS roles?
If not, training is likely the bottleneck.
Why 2026 Is a Critical Moment for SMS Leadership Capacity
Across the country, airports are facing:
retirements and promotions,
turnover in key operational roles,
increasingly complex regulatory expectations,
pressure from insurers and legal teams to demonstrate due diligence, and
more scrutiny from boards and local communities regarding safety performance.
Executives need documented, defensible evidence that staff responsible for SMS have been trained - and trained well.
That’s why 2026 is a strategic year to invest in SMS competency.
What Participants Leave With - Beyond the Classroom
The Acclivix SMS Manager Courses (Kitchener: Mar 23–27, 2026 | Calgary: May 25-29, 2026) are designed to give airports more than knowledge.
Participants leave with:
A complete syllabus of tools, templates, and processes
Filled out during the course - a practical field manual they’ll use every day.Practical, hands-on experience
Hazard ID, risk assessments, investigations, QA techniques, problem-solving, and safety promotion.Clarity on regulatory expectations
Including what Transport Canada actually looks for during inspections and audits.Confidence to lead and coach
Whether influencing frontline staff, explaining decisions to managers, or engaging with executives.Industry connections
A cohort of peers they’ll continue to reach out to and learn from - often one of the most valuable takeaways.
This isn’t training that fills notebooks. It’s training that builds capability.
A Final Question for Executives
If a significant event occurred tomorrow, could you confidently demonstrate that your people - the ones responsible for risk management, quality assurance, safety oversight, and emergency preparedness - were trained, competent, and prepared?
If the answer isn’t a clear yes, then these courses were designed with your organization in mind.
Your people deserve the training.
Your SMS demands it.
And your airport’s future depends on it.