DUBAI - Emirates has announced the appointment of Cubic Global Defense (a business unit of Cubic Corporation, San Diego, CA, USA) to develop a virtual, game-based training program for the airline's cabin crew. 

The programme, currently in development, will complement the airline’s current training facilities at the Emirates Aviation College – Crew Training in Dubai. 

Emirates’ cabin crew new curriculum will be a combination of virtual learning content and gamification both online and in classrooms. The new approach can be customised to support several training modules. Aircraft familiarisation is a new content being developed with virtual walk-through of both the interior and exterior of the aircraft. 

Catherine Baird, Emirates’ senior vice president, cabin crew training said: “We constantly revise our training curriculum to use innovative and cutting-edge learning tools. This is our biggest investment in crew training since we introduced our full-motion, high-fidelity aircraft simulators. 

"As the airline expands, our main goal is being able to cater to our growing crew numbers without compromising our world-class training programme. This new technology will engage our crew and complement their learning, giving them all the skills necessary to deliver our signature service and keeping safety at the heart of our operation.” 

With 16 more aircraft deliveries expected by March 2016, Emirates is hiring over 5,000 new cabin crew this year alone. Today, Emirates has over 20,000 cabin crew from over 135 nationalities.

Bill Toti, president of Cubic Global Defense, added: “We’re proud to be working with Emirates in a commercial aviation industry first.

“We look forward to helping define a new industry standard in aviation training that focuses on safety and service while incorporating the best in learning science and emerging virtual technology.”