NAMA conducts on-the-job training for 48 AIS cadets

In line with the International Civil Aviation Standard and Recommended Practices (ICAO SARPS), the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) has rounded off a four-week on-the-job Training (OJT) for 48 Aeronautical Information Services (AIS) Cadets of the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology (NCAT), Zaria.

The exercise which took place at designated airports in Lagos and Kano centre was part of the critical requirements for the cadets to attain certification by NCAT as full AIS Officers.

The cadets, who commenced their nine-month Basic Aeronautical Information Management Officers Course (BAIMO) in October 2016 have been exposed to fundamentals in Maps and Charts, Air Traffic Services (ATS), Meteorology, Communication, Navigation, Surveillance/ Air Traffic Management (CNS/ATM), Aerodrome Ground Aids (AGA), Aircraft Operating Characteristics (AOC) among other courses and are due to graduate in August 2017.

A workshop on e-Flight Plan and e-NOTAM (Notice To Air men) was also held at the agency’s headquarters in Lagos at the end of the training exercise, designed to help the cadets appreciate the practical aspects of electronic dissemination of aeronautical information to airspace users.

This is just as the Managing Director of NAMA, Captain Fola Akinkuotu has congratulated the cadets for their “excellent performance,” during the OJT, saying that the result of the training showed that staff of the agency appreciate efforts of management towards building capacity of workers.

Akinkuotu maintained that NAMA would continue to give priority to training and retraining of staff as this would enable them to effectively man the sophisticated Air Traffic Management infrastructure being deployed by the agency.

In his remarks, the General Manager of Aeronautical Information Services (AIS) department, Alhaji Kabir Gusau noted that the OJT exercise was meant to prepare cadets to appreciate the theoretical aspects of their training through practical interface with equipment and colleagues at work stressing that “our choice of training centres like Lagos was deliberate because this is where NOTAMs are promulgated.”