White-label exam portals for aviation training organisations
An aviation exam portal is the website where an aviation training organization’s students log in, sit tests and see results. A white-label version carries your name and brand instead of the software vendor’s. This guide is for heads of training, quality managers and exam officers deciding what that portal must do.
The useful question is not how the portal looks. It is which of your exams the portal may host at all, because for some licence theory exams the competent authority, not you, arranges the sitting. This post sorts exams by who sets the arrangements, then turns the records and integrity rules we could verify into a vendor brief.
The rules quoted here were read in EASA and UK CAA publications in October 2026. They are not legal or airworthiness advice, and they differ by country, so check your competent authority before you build around any of them.
Key takeaways
- A portal for your own tests, such as progress tests, end-of-phase tests and customer courses, is a different job from the authority’s system for licence theory exams.
- Under EU rules, the competent authority puts in place the arrangements for flight-crew theoretical knowledge examinations, so confirm your authority’s arrangements before promising anything on your portal.
- EASA’s ATO rules say ground examination records are kept throughout the course and for three years after it, so ask every vendor how scores, attempts and edits are stored and exported.
- White-label is a surface layer. Ask in writing about domain, email sender, per-client branding, identity checks and change history, because published pages often leave them out.
What is an aviation exam portal, and is it the same as the regulator’s portal?
No. An aviation exam portal run by your training organization is a different system from the one a regulator uses for licence exams. Yours serves your own tests and students. The authority’s serves the official sittings it arranges. Students may meet both, so your portal should say plainly which one they are in.
EU rules make the split visible. ARA.FCL.300 of the Aircrew Regulation says the competent authority “shall put in place the necessary arrangements and procedures” for theoretical knowledge examinations (quoted). The text comes from the EASA Easy Access Rules for Aircrew, revision from August 2023. For ATPL, MPL, CPL and instrument ratings, it adds that “Examinations shall be done in written or computer-based form” (quoted).
The UK shows what this looks like in practice. The UK CAA’s GA theoretical knowledge e-exams page says these exams replace paper theory exams for the licences it covers. Candidates register their own accounts to book, and each exam is conducted by a Ground Examiner under their authorisation. The system is the CAA’s. Schools register and supply the staff who run the sitting.
The table lists the systems a student may meet and where your brand can appear in each.
| System | Who runs it | What happens there | Where your brand can appear |
|---|---|---|---|
| Authority exam system | The competent authority, for example the CAA’s GA e-exam system | Official theory sittings and results | Not on its screens. Only in the invitations, briefings and venue arrangements you control around it |
| Your own portal | Your organization, on a vendor’s engine | Progress tests, end-of-phase tests, customer course exams, practice sittings | Everywhere the vendor allows: login, invitations, results, certificates |
| Vendor-hosted school platform | A question-bank or e-learning vendor | Student practice and tests the school assigns | Only as far as the vendor’s offer goes, so ask |
Which exams can run through your own aviation exam portal?
Run through your portal the tests you set and mark yourself: progress tests, end-of-phase tests, customer course exams and practice sittings. Do not assume it can host an exam where an authority sets the arrangements. The table sorts common cases by who decides, and your competent authority has the last word on each row.
| Exam | Who sets the arrangements | Fit for your branded portal | Confirm with |
|---|---|---|---|
| EASA flight-crew theory (ATPL, CPL, instrument rating) | Competent authority. ARA.FCL.300(b)(2) says questions are “selected by the competent authority, according to a common method” (quoted) | Practice and preparation only, unless your authority says otherwise | How your authority delivers and supervises sittings |
| UK GA theory (PPL and other covered licences) | The CAA’s e-exam system, with a Ground Examiner conducting each exam | Practice and preparation only | The CAA’s published user guides for training organisations |
| ATO progress and end-of-phase ground tests | Your organization. ORA.ATO.120 requires instructor progress reports that include ground examinations to be kept | Natural fit | Record export, retention and who can edit results |
| Part-147 basic and type examinations | The maintenance training organisation and its competent authority | Possible, depending on current text and your authority | Your authority, and the current Part-147 examination rules |
| Customer course exams (airline or ground-handling clients) | You and your customer | Natural fit | The customer’s pass mark, retake and reporting needs |
Part-147 is the row to treat with most care. EASA has an open review of the rules for maintenance training organisations, NPA 2023-10 (RMT.0544). EASA’s February 2024 slides on that review mention changes to the examination process and to record retention. We could not confirm the review’s status as of October 2026, so see our post on what an EASA Part-147 exam system must support and ask your authority.
Pro tip: Write The Scope Line First. Before choosing colors, write one plain sentence for the login page and every invitation: which exams this portal hosts and which sittings run elsewhere. It stops students from reading a school-run progress test as the official exam, or the reverse.
What does white-label mean for an aviation training organization?
White-label means the vendor’s name, logo and web address disappear and yours replace them, while the vendor still runs and updates the engine. For an aviation exam portal, how far that goes is a vendor choice. Ask about each layer instead of assuming a “white-label” label covers it.
Aviation adds two twists. First, one organization often has several faces: its own school, courses for airline customers, perhaps a maintenance programme. Decide early whether you need one portal with a programme label or a separately branded portal per client. Vendors differ, so ask.
Second, names must match your paperwork. Use your organization’s name as it appears in your approval documents on the portal, invitations and certificates. Avoid regulator logos and “approved” badges unless your authority has told you how they may be used. None of the sources we read says a regulator approves exam software, so a badge could imply something untrue.
Our branded exam portal post covers the learner-facing touchpoints and how deep to brand, so this post does not repeat them. If you are weighing a custom build, the white-label platform versus building your own exam engine framework covers cost and effort.
What should an aviation exam portal brief ask vendors?
Ask vendors to show how the portal handles identity, confidentiality, record keeping and record protection, because those are the points aviation rules touch directly. The table pairs each with the source we verified and a question to put to every vendor. The rules are written for organizations and authority exams, not for software features.
| Need | What the source says | Question for the vendor |
|---|---|---|
| Confirm who is sitting | AMC1 ARA.FCL.300 says applicant identity should be confirmed before the exam (guidance for authority exams) | Does the portal record who checked identity and when, or only the login? |
| Keep content confidential | AMC1 ARA.FCL.300: “The content of the examination papers should retain a confidential status until the end of the examination session.” (quoted) | Can items and answers stay hidden until the whole group has finished? |
| Keep ground exam records | ORA.ATO.120 requires records “throughout the course and for a period of three years after the completion of the training” (quoted) | Can you export every attempt per student, and control retention? |
| Protect records from alteration | ORA.GEN.220(c): “Records shall be stored in a manner that ensures protection from damage, alteration and theft.” (quoted) | Who can change a score, and is each change logged with a name and time? |
| Back up records | AMC1 ORA.GEN.220(b) says computer systems should have a backup updated within 24 hours of any new entry | How often is data backed up, and can one student’s history be restored? |
Read the ORA rows with a date in mind. We read ORA.ATO.120 (Regulation (EU) 2018/1119) and ORA.GEN.220 in EASA’s June 2020 Easy Access Rules for Part-ORA. EASA has published later revisions, so confirm the current wording, and check for national rules that add to it. Our exam security settings checklist covers the confidentiality row in practical detail.
What do SimpliAssess’s published pages say about an aviation exam portal?
As of October 2026, SimpliAssess’s published pages describe white-label branding, API-first delivery and basic exam administration. They do not mention aviation, authority requirements, custom domains or change histories. Treat those as questions to put to any vendor rather than assumptions.
Here is what the SimpliAssess features page and FAQ state:
- “Complete Brand Control” is listed as a premium feature, alongside an API-first design for connecting to other platforms.
- The features page lists Item Banking, Test Management, Examinee Management, Schedule Management and Analytics & Reporting.
- The FAQ says “Data ownership remains with the customer” and describes the platform as cloud-based.
The pages we reviewed do not describe custom domains, email senders, per-client sub-portals, identity checks, edit histories or retention settings. They also say nothing about EASA, FAA or any other aviation rule set. Put each of those into your questionnaire and ask for a live demonstration, not a written yes.
How can you test an aviation exam portal in an afternoon?
Build three test accounts and walk one short test from invitation to exported record, trying to break your own rules on the way. An afternoon is enough to see where the vendor’s name leaks, whether edits are logged and whether the export matches your training record.
Step 1: Create three accounts. Make a student, an instructor and an administrator. Use your own wording for a ten-item progress test, written for the exercise and not copied from any official exam.
Step 2: Read the invitation as a student. Check the sender name, the web address and the footer. Confirm your organization’s name matches your approval documents and that no vendor name appears.
Step 3: Sit the test. Note what the student is told about timing, answer changes and who sees the result. Check that your scope line is visible.
Step 4: Change the score as administrator. Look for a log that records who changed it, when, and what the old value was. If there is none, you have found the biggest gap.
Step 5: Export the record. Compare it with your current progress card or training record format. AMC1 ORA.ATO.120 allows ATOs training only for LAPL, PPL, SPL or BPL to use a student progress card, so your format may be simple. Check that every field you keep appears in the export.
Pro tip: Ask For The Last Change, Not The Feature. In the demo, ask the vendor to show who last edited one named score and when. A live log entry proves more than a feature list that says “audit trail”.
What should you do next?
List the exams you want on the portal and mark each one as yours, the customer’s or the authority’s, using the second table. Anything the authority arranges stays off the portal until your competent authority confirms otherwise. Then send the vendor brief table to every shortlisted vendor as a written questionnaire.
Run the afternoon test on the two vendors that answer best, and record the date and tester on each result. Keep the questionnaire answers with your quality records, so a later change in the vendor’s service can be traced.
If you also want training records, scheduling and certification tracking in one place, SimpliTrain is a separate training platform from the same company. Its demo request page says the walkthrough is tailored to your setup and covers assessments and certification tracking. Treat the marketing claims on its aviation page as vendor statements to verify.
Frequently asked questions
What is an aviation exam portal?
An aviation exam portal is the learner-facing website where an aviation training organization’s students log in, take tests and see results. It usually runs on a vendor’s assessment engine. It is separate from any regulator system for official licence exams, so students should always be told which one they are using.
Can a training organization use its own portal for official licence theory exams?
Not on the strength of the rules we read. Under EU ARA.FCL.300, the competent authority arranges theoretical knowledge examinations and selects the questions for ATPL, MPL, CPL and instrument ratings. Your own portal suits practice and school tests. Ask your competent authority whether it delegates any sittings before assuming it can host them.
Does a white-label exam portal need regulatory approval?
None of the sources we read says a regulator approves exam software. The rules address organizations, records and authority exam arrangements. Your competent authority decides what it accepts within your approval, so ask it directly. Be wary of any vendor that describes its software as approved or compliant without naming who said so.
How long must an approved training organisation keep exam records?
In EASA’s June 2020 edition of ORA.ATO.120, ground examination and progress records are kept throughout the course and for three years after the training is completed. Other record types and national rules can differ. Confirm the current wording and your authority’s expectations before setting retention in any system.
Should the exam portal use our own domain and email address?
The sources we read do not require it. A custom domain and sender help students recognize invitations as yours, and they take DNS and email setup. SimpliAssess’s published pages do not describe either, so ask any vendor whether they are offered and on which plan.
Can one portal serve several airline or ground-handling clients?
It can if the vendor supports separate branding or programme labels per client, so confirm that before you buy. Decide first whether clients need their own look, then ask for a live demonstration with two test clients on one account.
