How to create more jobs in aviation, by NCAT boss

The development of general aviation by Nigeria would create jobs for some of the over 300 unemployed pilots, Rector, Nigerian College of Aviation Technology (NCAT), Captain Abdulsalami Mohammed, has said.

Mohammed, who spoke in Abuja, urged young Nigerian pilots to exercise patience with their ambition of flying big and flamboyant jets.

He urged young unemployed pilots to start from light airplanes until they acquire experience and encouraged them to start with general aviation as it is the perfect training ground.

The NCAT boss also lamented that over 300 pilots are unemployed and roaming the streets in search of jobs, stressing that they need to continue flying to garner enough experience to enable them become employable by commercial airlines.

He, however, noted that training some of these pilots is a huge burden on airlines, especially as many of them end up leaving for greener pastures.

His words: “This is the issue the ministry and airline operators are discussing; it is receiving government attention, but NCAT cannot get involved in seeking jobs for its graduates. We are a training institution. We can train people, we can give references when you finish, but we cannot get involved in getting jobs for our graduates. ”

On how to get young pilots employed, captain Mohammed said one of the major ways was to improve the nation’s general aviation so as to get the young pilots flying and gaining flight time and experience.
“Some of them then go into general aviation and fly light and medium aircraft to gain experience before they now eventually qualify to go for Airline transport Pilot License (ATPL) before they join commercial airlines, this is the practice in the U.S., this is the practice elsewhere,” he said.

“Unfortunately for us, every pilot that comes out wants to go and fly big jets; it is more glamorous to fly passenger jets, but the airlines cannot absorb everybody. If you recall, when Virgin Nigeria was set up in 2005, virtually every pilot in Nigeria applied to Virgin Nigeria. I was one of them and Virgin Nigeria was able to pick whoever they wanted and so they picked those they wanted and retrained them completely regardless of the background.”
He recalled that a few years after Virgin Nigeria, Arik came on board and they also employed other pilots that couldn’t secure jobs in Virgin Nigeria.
He disclosed that more airlines started up and that was when the industry started recovering including the rapid development of Arik with over 30 aircraft at one time, mopping up all the experienced pilots that had been in the industry.

The situation, he said, forced other airlines to look elsewhere and that was when they started employing the young inexperienced pilots and began training them.
The NCAT rector, however, warned on the cost of training a fresher from the college on a jet, explaining that pilots are trained through trial by fire and that it would be a humongous mistake to train a young pilot with an aircraft having hundreds of passengers.

“But when you now have 100 sometimes 300 passengers sitting in the back and you have someone in training, you don’t want him to make mistakes; otherwise those passengers may never fly with that airline again. So, it is not the ideal training environment. So you find that the training takes too long and it is expensive and at the end of the day the airline says ‘this man is not trainable’ and they stop training – that is why a lot of airlines are reluctant to start bringing people.”

Mohammed also said that the planned establishment of a national carrier would also help create employment due to migration of the experienced pilots creating openings in their present positions for young pilots.

“The creation of a national carrier will also create employment opportunities for these young men. I am not saying that the national carrier will employ all of them immediately but you find out that a lot of our experienced pilots – when the national carrier is coming, they will leave where they are and try to join the carrier, thereby leaving openings for these young people.”

Wole Shadare