A Licensing Office is an essential arm of a civil aviation regulatory body. It is established to carry out the functions and administrative processes leading up to the issuance of a licence, rating or other certificates to those personnel who are required to be in possession of such documents by law in order to carry out their respective job functions.

1. The assessment and approval of applications for licences and ratings

2. The application of medical fitness assessments relating to licence requirements

3. The issuance of licences and ratings

4. Validation of foreign licenses

5. Conducting knowledge examinations

6. Updating of activities according to ICAO SARPs & promulgation of the same in the industry after ratification.

1. Arranging and conducting written knowledge examinations required for licences

2. Setting and marking knowledge examination papers1. Arranging and conducting written knowledge examinations required for licences

3. Arranging flight testing of flight crew and/or other practical assessments tests required for other licences and/or ratings1. Arranging and conducting written knowledge examinations required for licences

4. Licensing and certification of Civil Aviation Training Organizations1. Arranging and conducting written knowledge examinations required for licences

5. Processing of licensing applications1. Arranging and conducting written knowledge examinations required for licences

6. The promulgation of examination schedules, dates, times and locations1. Arranging and conducting written knowledge examinations required for licences

7. Monitoring of flying training standards and processing of licensing applications of flying training schools1. Arranging and conducting written knowledge examinations required for licences

8. Monitoring of training activities and standards of civil aviation training schools of other licensing disciplines and processing of such applications

1. The production, updating and availability, under applicable legal provisions, of personnel licensing regulations, implementation procedures, Aviation Safety information circulars detailing requirements for personnel Notices, explanatory pamphlets or licensing

2. The approval of syllabi used by licensed/approved aviation training schools

3. The approval of organizations and persons for specific tasks related to training and testing inclusive of persons designated by the Director General to carry out specific tasks on his behalf

4. The Assessment of qualifications and experience of military personnel in order to determine examination and testing exceptions

5. The enforcement of licensing laws and regulations.

General

The Standards & Recommended Practices contained in ICAO Annex 1 on Personnel Licensing require certain identified categories of aviation personnel to hold a licence and appropriate competencies known as Ratings (in aviation terminology), plus where applicable, a certificate of medical fitness to perform their respective job functions. Further the licence holders are required to have recent experience in their respective disciplines and also maintain the required proficiency (currency) to become eligible to continue in the job. Licences issued by Sri Lanka are of Expiry type whereas some countries issue licences, which are perpetual or non-expiry. The licence holders in Sri Lanka, hence, are required to renew their licences after producing evidence of the Currency, and Recency to the PEL Section in order to continue to perform the job. The medical certificate also should be valid in order to keep the licence valid. When licences, ratings or medical certificates expire, there are methods of revalidating or reactivating those, generally by either undergoing training and a test or a test alone or by other means.

The requirements, which should be met by an applicant to obtain a personnel licence is specified in ICAO Annex 1. In addition there are local requirements too, which have to be met. The Air Navigation Regulations and corresponding Implementation Requirements and Procedures specify the legal and administrative provisions for all the licensing matters stated in the preceding paragraph. They also describe the steps required to be follow by the licence holders and PEL staff when dealing with such matters. The subsequent Chapters will make reference to these when necessary.