By Adekunle Williams
keja – The Nigeria College of Aviation Technology (NCAT) has called on Aviation Training Organisations (ATOs) in the country to promote standardisation of aviation training in the industry.
The Rector, NCAT, Capt. Abdulsaami Mohammed made this known on Sunday in a statement issued in Lagos.
Mohammed, who is also a council member, African Association of Approved Aviation Training Organisations (AATOs), said this would enable Nigerian aviators to meet up global standards.
He also urged the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) to introduce stringent measures in the registration of new ATOs to ensure standardisation in the industry.
“I urge NCAA to beam its attention on government and private ATOs to bring to the barest the excessive competition to avoid what happened to the airline industry to happen to the ATOs.”
Mohammed said that the aim of the ATOs meeting held in Lagos was to set up a local chapter of AATO geared towards promoting cooperation, encourage the sharing of expertise among members and other stakeholders
The rector said the meeting was held because Africa was mandated by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) to set up AATO to coordinate aviation training in Africa in collaboration with ICAO AFI steering committee.
He said the association was set up and the first meeting was held in Abuja since Nigeria played a very big role in establishing the association.
The rector explained that benefits of being an AATO member include; access to a network of approved Africa Aviation training organisation and access to standardised curriculum.
“Included are access to training content and access to current market information reflecting accurate supply, demand and capacity in Africa.
“Others are the pooling of instructors course material and training facilities, common acceptance and recognition of training and certificates among others,” he said.
Mohammed explained that AATO had also developed a roadmap which would be presented to the whole continent at the next General Assembly taking place in Accra in October.
He said: “NCAT is a council member of AATO and we were mandated to set up a local chapter of this association with the recognition that Nigeria has the highest number of aviation training organisations.
“However, we have not been very active in the continental level. So, we felt there was the need to bring together all the approved training organisations here in Nigeria so that we can meet and introduce this African Association to them.”
Mohammed said the ATOs meeting ended with the nomination of individuals representing different ATOs to form a seven-man committee to deliberate on ways to achieve success in the formation of AATO local chapter.
The functions of AATO is to develop policy and guidelines for aviation training organisations in Africa in order to facilitate their compliance with international and national standards and best practices in aviation training.