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Bernard fulfils ambition, enhances aviation manpower development with new LAA’s facility

For years, Bankole Bernard’s ambition was to bequeath to Nigerians aviation training institution that would help to boost or increase the manpower development of the country’s aviation industry as the older ones are gradually giving way to younger professionals that are poised to take the sector to greater heights.
Bernard’s ambition which he secretly nursed after he visited the International Air Transport Association (IATA) opened his eyes to the fact that Nigeria with its over 200 million people had just 10 Approved Training Organisations (ATOs) and he vowed to be the 11th ATO.

Group Managing Director, Finchglow Holdings, Mr Bankole Bernard; Grou0 Executive Director, Mrs Yetunde Bankole Bernard and Regional Manager, Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority, Barrister Bukola Teriba at the launch of Lagos Aviation Academy New Facility in Lagos recently.
On June 25th, 2024, the travel entrepreneur and his dedicated staff inaugurated its state-of-the-art Lagos Aviation Academy (LAA).
While fielding questions from the media, the Group Managing Director (GMD) of Finchglow Holdings urged the government to look more at how to develop people for the aviation and travel industry, describing the people as the greatest asset any organisation and county can have.
He said, “We realised that in our little capacity, we will try as much as possible to enhance and develop people that would add value to our industry and the rest of the world. That is what we have been doing in LAA and that is what we will continue to do.”
“In the last seven years, we have trained over 2,000 people. In the previous location we were, we had four classes but in our new location, we have eight bigger classes. This has become a multiplayer effect. This means the 2,000 people we trained, is something we can cover within two years because we can run courses concurrently without any issues. We have a bigger facility now”.
“For students coming outside the state, we have accommodations for them, even some that stay in Lagos; by the time they calculate the cost of transport, they realise that they should stay and they can study and the accommodation has light 24/7 with full Internet to enhance their studies.”
Excited by the plan of the National Association of Nigerian Travel Agents (NANTA) to collaborate with the aviation training institution, Bernard disclosed that the partnership coming from NANTA is to increase the level of professionalism amongst travel agencies.
“As you are aware, we have people who are not professionals in the system. NANTA as a body is interested in improving the knowledge base of its members and I think that is a step in the right direction for NANTA and we are willing to collaborate with as many bodies as possible.
“Today a country like Singapore with a population of about three million people, has 4.5 million people registering with their national library. That signifies that they do not joke with their education and knowledge. So I’m looking forward to how we are going to drive the aviation industry in such a way that with the people we have, we can easily expand to every part of the world.”
“One thing the Philippines as a nation does is that they export their citizens to other parts of the country to work. The country makes a living from this. We have over 200 million people. We should stop talking about unemployment. There are jobs for people to do. It is just someone directing them in the right path.”
LAA’s Head of School, Bolaji Durojaiye, highlighted the academy’s focus on young people who possess the minimum qualification of an O’level certificate.
“Ideally, we prefer students to join us at a young age when their minds are still sharp and receptive to learning,” Mr. Durojaiye explained. “As my accountable manager likes to say, it’s been challenging to maintain such high standards, but we persevere.”

He further elaborated on the diverse range of courses offered by LAA. The faculties of Travel and Tourism and Technical/Operations provide training in visa application and processing, basic ticketing and reservations, and crafting tour packages. Additionally, LAA offers advanced and basic flight dispatcher courses, cabin crew ab initio programs, and passenger ground services training.
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