Nigerian College of Aviation Technology NCAT, Zaria has just been granted the status of Regional Training Centre (RTC) by International Civil Aviation Organisation(ICAO) in this interview Rector of the college, Captain Abdulsalami Mohammed spoke on how was possible for NCAT granted that status by the world aviation regulatory body and benefits expected from it.
Excerpt:
NCAT has been granted regional centre of excellence status by ICAO; how was this achieved and what were the steps taken to achieve this feat?
One of the requirements before you are granted that international status by ICAO, you need to meet certain criteria. This journey was started by NCAT 11 years ago when we became members of the TrainAir Plus, before you become a member of TrainAir Plus there are also criteria you need to meet which included access end of training facilities and personnel. The global aviation office sent auditors from ICAO to Zaria to come and access, they came with their checklist and of course typically, there were some gaps and we were given time within which to close these gaps, and we were reassessed and it was determined that we met the requirements to be a member of the TrainAir . The next level was the change in nomenclature now it’s called TrainAir Plus and also that requirement was for the institution to develop a standard training package which we did in 2013 and in 2015 we started the process of getting this Regional Training Centre (RTC) status and that required a lot of things, including and not limited to developing extra training packages, at the time NCAT signified interest to go for the RTC, that was when the criteria was changed, now they needed the applicant to develop a minimum of three standard training packages and we had to do that and then train an internal validated and for that training of an internal validator. We had to develop another standard training package. So with that, NCAT was able to satisfy the requirement of being awarded RTC Status. To answer your question, yes we have the capacity, we have the plans to increase that capacity because by being an RTC opens a lot of opportunities for NCAT there will be a lot of training at NCAT and it will improve the requirement that we need to keep this status. We have to keep increasing or improving on our facilities and one of the things we need to meet these criteria is to modernise our classrooms. If you go to our classrooms you will see that there are modernised and standardised to meet ICAO requirement complete with projectors and interactive boards. What we need to do in anticipation for the increased demands for courses is you build more classrooms, office accommodation and hostel accommodation and all this in anticipation of our approval and we made allowances for in our 2017-18 budget and we are fully ready to meet the challenges and opportunities of this new status that NCAT has.
Already NCAT Offers post graduate Diploma in Aviation management, we have identified the need to have this, and anytime we interact with airline owner we stress the need for them to train people in aviation management because we have a lot of technical people who are involved in running airlines or administrative functions but they lack the proper training in aviation management. So we are already conducting these courses and we hope to introduce additional courses in the future. We are also talking to other educational institutions so we can collaborate with some of them both in Nigeria and outside.
Availability and cost of Avgas has been a challenge for any operator of piston engine aircraft that was why the decision was taken by NCAT management long before I came, to replace our Tampico aircraft that use Avgas to the diamond aircraft that uses jet A1. We already have taken delivery of one diamond 42 aircraft We have more in order, the process is slow because of budgetary allocations and releases but even today we discussed this with the house chairman on aviation and she agrees there is need for us to have increased allocations so we can bring in more aircraft instead of one at a time. If we are able to re-fleet within the shortest possible time we will not be facing this challenge of availability and cost of Avgas. We bought some and took delivery of some consignment of Avgas last week and we have enough stock to last us quite a while.
What are the benefits of this status?
Being a RTC allows the college to develop training programmes for all the ICAO Annexes. So we can develop training programmes in Aerodromes, air transport, facilitation, environment safety, security all of them so it opens a lot of windows of opportunities as we can develop these programs ourselves and anytime someone from any part of the world is interested and part of the ICAO TrainAir plus, they can utilise these programs and NCAT gets to benefit because we get paid anytime someone uses our training programmes
Our instructors, because they have been trained by ICAO, can be invited to conduct training in any part of the world. My deputy here had gone to conduct training in Singapore and that goes to show the level of confidence the ICAO has.
