New airport screeners get double the training

Associated Press

WASHINGTON — The federal employees who will screen passengers and baggage will have almost twice as much training as those now at airport security checkpoints.

The Transportation Security Administration announced Friday that the new screeners will spend 40 hours in a classroom and then have 60 hours of on-the-job training to learn how to identify dangerous items, how to use explosive detection equipment and how to physically search passengers and baggage.

The new screeners also will be taught how to deal with passengers, including those with disabilities or with religious or cultural requirements. They must pass a competency test before they can start work.

Current screeners get 12 hours in the classroom and 40 hours of training on the job. The low-wage positions have been plagued by high turnover; the new federal jobs will have higher salaries.

While the current screeners are private-sector employees paid by the airline industry, the new security force will consist of federal employees.

"The TSA is firmly committed to creating a screener workforce of the highest quality, one that is instilled with pride and commands the respect of the traveling public," said John Magaw, the new undersecretary for transportation security. "We intend to offer an attractive and rewarding career path for screeners that will include varied, stimulating work and the chance for promotion. That path begins with intensive training."

Before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, reports by Congress’ General Accounting Office and the Transportation Department’s inspector general found problems with the low-paid airport security screeners. In October, the inspector general reported that seven of 20 screeners at Washington Dulles International Airport had failed their annual tests.

The TSA said it would hire more than 30,000 screeners at 429 airports, about 2,000 more than originally expected. The agency said the additional employees would allow the government to efficiently screen passengers who pose no threat.