CHUKS OKOH
The Cross River State Government is partnering with Lagos Aviation Academy (LAA), one of the conglomerates of Finchglow Holdings Ltd in the training of its indigenes for the aviation industry.
This is as the management of LAA said it has graduated 3,125 students in the last eight years of its existence.
Capt. Eno Inah, the Commissioner for Aviation, Cross River State, revealed this plan on Wednesday in Lagos during the facility tour of the academy.
Inah, who expressed delight with the state-of-the-art facilities at the academy, said that the State Government was willing to train its aviation personnel at the academy.
He explained that training of the state’s personnel in the academy would save the state foreign exchange, while its indigenes would also benefit more from the quality resource persons engaged by the school.
He said: “I am highly impressed with the facilities at the Lagos Aviation Academy – its location, ambience and the cozy environment that is good for learning. We are an emerging aviation state because we are not up to five years and the school is already eight years with huge progress.
“For us in Cross River State, presently, we have two aircraft, Boeing 737-300 and we are expecting delivery of two CRJ1000 aircraft soon. We are evolving with the academy and from what I have seen here, I won’t hesitate to write to His Excellency Sen. Bassey Otu, the Governor of Cross River State, to send some of our staff for training in the academy.
“First, it would save us foreign exchange expenses. It would be cost-friendly to train our staff until we establish our own aviation school. I am happy at what I am seeing in the school. Once they have the right certification, we will work with them for the training of our personnel in the aviation industry.”
During the tour of the facilities, Inah, also counselled students of the school to dedicate their time to their studies and urged them to be purposeful about their future.
He assured that the brilliant ones among them would be absorbed into its airline when it finally comes onboard in the next few months.
Also commenting, Bolaji Durojaiye, Head of School, LAA, said that the academy had produced 3,125 graduates in the last eight years with most of them engaged in the sector in Nigeria and beyond.
Durojaiye, however, said that the journey had been tough, but commended the management of the academy for remaining focused over the years.
He also lauded the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) for effective regulation of the sector in Nigeria.
As a major Approved Training Organisation (ATO) in Nigeria, Durojaiye said that the school currently runs 31 courses, which range from cabin crew training in different types – Boeing 737, CRJ1000, Embraer 135, 145, HS125 and others.
He also mentioned basic and the advanced class programmes, IATA foundation in travel and tourism, visa application and processes and others as some of the courses of the school.
“In the last eight years, we have graduated 3,125 students from this school since inception. For the future, we plan to extend our curriculum. We are going to introduce the maintenance programme, we are almost done with that. We are going to go into a proper maintenance programme.
“We will start with the basic aircraft technician course and much later, we will go into the licensing course – Aircraft Maintenance Engineering (AME). That is the plan for now.”
Besides, Mr. Bankole Bernard, the Group Managing Director, Finchglow Holding Ltd, admonished the students to identify and discover their uniqueness in order to pave the way for themselves in the industry.
“You are not in LAA by coincidence. LAA must resonate with who you are. Your being here must not be a waste,” he added.
