Air Traffic Control Developmental
Situational Awareness; Communication Breakdown; Confusion; Training / Qualification
ATC Issue All Types
General None Reported / Taken
Environment - Non Weather Related; Human Factors
ZZZ approach needed to close for COVID cleaning. ZOB assumes control of approach airspace as part of the contingency plan. There are 2 major problems with the current contingency plan that could result in unsafe situations when this occurs. First and foremost; ZOB Controllers do not have enough training on the rules and procedures for vectoring for instrument approaches; especially ILS approaches. Yes this info is available in the 7110; but when you are working traffic it is not the right time to be constantly referencing the information. As a former Approach Controller; I trained for a long time; between classroom; lab and OJTI before I was certified to work a radar sector where I vectored for approaches. At the very least; Area X controllers without approach control experience need classroom training and several lab problems to be proficient enough to work ZZZ or ZZZ1 approach airspace.My second concern is the potential for sector overload when approach airspace is combined with ZOB airspace. Approach control service require a level of attention that cannot be maintained if higher altitude ZOB traffic is even moderately busy. The contingency plan should be rewritten to allow the Controller working the approach airspace to be a separate sector from ZOB's ZZZ (Y) and ZZZ1 (Z) sectors.Area X controllers without approach control experience need classroom training and several lab problems to be proficient enough to work ZZZ or ZZZ1 approach airspace. The contingency plan should be rewritten to allow the controller working approach airspace to be a separate sector from ZOB's ZZZ (Y) and ZZZ1 (Z) sectors.
Center Controller reported issues with another ATC facility; COVID cleaning; ATC Zero; and the contingency plan.