Indigenous aviation company, Caverton Helicopters has trained 15 Nigerians as engineers, type-rated in the modern helicopter, AW139.The company has also recorded other achievements in the area of human capacity development and has been partnering with the National Content Development Board (NCDB) to ensure that more Nigerians acquire technical skills to work in the industry.Managing Director of the company, Captain Josiah Choms, noted during the graduation ceremony of the trainees in Lagos at the weekend that there is a shortfall in the pool of type-rated engineers in the country.He said, Caverton has dedicated programme to train and give types to indigenous engineers on an on-going basis.“As you may be aware, there is a shortfall in the pool of type-rated engineers in the country.  Caverton has a dedicated programme to train and give types to indigenous engineers on an on-going basis. This investment in training ties in with the vision of the Nigerian government on local content in so many ways. Indigenous staff are trained to world standards and deployed within our operations. We do not have to spend scarce foreign exchange recruiting staff from all over the world,” Choms said.According to him, this is the only way Nigerian companies can build local capacity and ensure that indigenes participate fully in all the relevant sectors of the nation’s economy presently dominated by foreigners, like the aviation and the old industry.“This is another milestone in our effort and commitment to develop local capacity within the aviation sector of the Nigeria economy. Today we commemorate the successful completion of the AW139 Type Rating course by another batch of engineers,” he said.Acknowledging the efforts of Caverton in the development of indigenous skills, the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) urged all operators in the industry to step up efforts in the training of aircraft engineers and other key professionals.General Manager in charge of Aircraft Registration and Airworthiness, Chinyere Totti, who represented the authority at the ceremony, said training of personnel in the sector had become imperative as a way of reducing risks associated with skills deficiency in technical operations in the sector.He described Caverton Helicoptets as a firm that takes training of its personnel seriously; as it ensures that its key personnel are sent for training in critical areas to develop indigenous capacity.The NCAA boss disclosed that very soon, the authority would establish its training academy for the development of indigenous capacity in the aviation sector and urged the grandaunts to face their engineering background and not get carried away with other pursuits, contrary to the objective of their training, adding that NCAA is monitoring operators to ensure they adhere to training programme for their staff.Chairman of Caverton Helicopters, Adeniyi Makinjuola said the company had been spending huge resources training its personnel overseas, but with plans to establish simulators for training in Lagos it would save the company the much needed funds and also ensures that more Nigerians are trained to take their rightful place in the industry.“Over the years our pilots have been training at helicopter training centres in the UAE, Qatar, the USA, Brazil, Italy and Norway and we are very excited to be building the first ever simulation training centre in Lagos, Nigeria, with CAE as our partner,”  Makanjuola said.


http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/caverton-trains-nigerians-as-helicopter-engineers/192354/

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