NCAT rector appeals to airlines, agencies to take personnel training, retraining seriously

Captain Abdulsalami Mohammed, Rector of the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology, NCAT, Zaria has appealed to Airlines, government agencies to take the issue of training and retraining of its personnel seriously.

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This is just as the NCAT boss stressed that having infrastructure without the personnel to use and maintain them would be a waste of investment.

Speaking at this year’s training of League of Airports and Aviation Correspondents, LAAC course in NCAT, Captain Mohammed said airlines, government agencies spent a lot of money in developing infrastructure but the personnel who make use of them are left untrained.

“It was mentioned to me recently in London that we have what is called physical infrastructure now in the world and that refers to human capital, the training of personnel, they are part of the infrastructure, if you don’t have a well trained structure, then whatever you spend in that physical infrastructure will not function efficiently. So, we encourage organizations to take the issue of
training seriously.”

He noted that the zero accident rate in commercial aviation in the past 5 years is attributed to training and retraining of personnel.

“Airlines, government and  agencies  have spent a lot of money in developing infrastructure and a lot of them do not tend to spent money inntraining people who would either maintain or use the infrastructures.”

While commending the Aviation agencies for their sponsorship of the LAAC training program, Captain Mohammed said, one of the reasons why this training had been sponsored by the agencies over the years was for reporters covering the industry to have a better knowledge of the industry so that they can report accurately.

“And you can see from some of the reporting that this training is bearing fruits.”

In the College, the NCAT rector explained that certain equipment had been acquired by the Federal Government for the College for the training of its students.

According to him, some of these equipment are in the process of installation, factory acceptance test carried out and in the process of being shipped to the country.

These equipment include the fire simulator already installed and awaiting Inauguration.
Others are the Boeing aircraft simulator and the 6 Diamond aircraft for pilot training.

“We have acquired new equipment in the college, we were in Canada last month for the factory acceptance of the Boeing 737 simulator, it is
now awaiting certification by the FAA before it is dismantled and shipped to Zaria. If you can recall, the delivery of the project has been delayed by the building that is supposed to house this simulator, the building is almost completed, so we are
ready to accept the simulator once it is shipped.”

“The fire training simulator has been installed awaiting conmmissioning, we are just working on the final civil work, the contractor is still on site, the simulator itself has been installed
and function tested.”

“The 6 Diamond aircraft we did the factory acceptance also last month, the NCAA just finished their own inspection of the aircraft, so they are going to be ferried across to Zaria.”