NCAT remains the cheapest school with standard training —Rector

CONTRARY to the hitherto insinuation that the cost of training at the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology (NCAT), Zaria, was on the high side, indications just emerged that the citadel of learning was about the cheapest place to learn.

The Rector of the prominent aviation college, Captain Mohammed Abdulsalami, dropped this hint during a chat with some Nigerian journalists at the 29th MRO Africa & 8th African Aviation Training Conference & Exhibition in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Speaking at the global event organised by the Chief Executive Officer of African Aviation Services Limited and the Chairman, African Business Aviation Association (AfBAA), Mr Nick Fadugba, the NCAT rector declared that the college offered the cheapest training globally.

“Our fees are not high; NCAT is about the cheapest place that you can train in the world because of government subsidy. We are not a profit making organisation. Recently, as part of the procedure for us to become a regional training centre of excellence, we had developed standard training packages. These packages have given NCAT a lot of publicity and we have started attracting students from other parts of the world.

Speaking on the progresses recorded by the institution in the recent past, Abdulsalami stated: “Sometimes last year, we had students from Thailand and Kenya who came to participate in some of the programmes. And this year we have published a programme where we intend to attract more foreign students.”

He used the opportunity to allay the fears of the public about safety around the school due to insecurity confronting many parts of the country saying: “The issue of insecurity is just a perception, NCAT itself is secure, the issue is not with Zaria, what people are afraid of is how to connect to Zaria from either Lagos or Abuja.

So, for students who fly through Lagos, we encourage them to fly to Kaduna where we now arrange to have them picked up and taken to the college.  And for those who arrive through Abuja, we either pick them in Abuja or at the train station in Kaduna.

“Like I said Zaria is secured, right now we have the contractors who came to Kaduna to install the fire simulator, they started work on Monday and they are from the UK and they have similar fears about security and the feedback I am getting is that they are quite satisfied with the arrangements we made foe them and what they have seen they feel very, very safe and secure in Zaria. So Zaria and its environment are not the problem it is just on how to get there.

Unveiling some of the achievements his administration has recorded in the college, the rector cited how his management had developed some training programmes skills acquisition targeted at the unemployed youths and “we have sensitised the states on the availability of these programmes. Students and youths can learn in such areas as repairs of diesel engines, solar power, electric installations and refrigeration.

Presently, the college which is enjoying patronage of some states according to the rector;”have students from Yobe state in the college that started training two weeks ago. But we are increasing in our efforts to sensitise because of the way our political systems works. Every four years you have a new set of people so you still have to keep going round to sensitise them and we hope that when we have our open day this year on May 27, we will have greater participation from some of these states so that they will now become more aware of what training opportunities are available at NCAT.”