Aerospace education fund to give young plane mechanics wings

BY INGRID BROWN Observer Senior reporter browni@jamaicaobserver.com

Wednesday, December 08, 2010

FUTURE aeroplane mechanics can now get help to pay their tuition from the Government's Aerospace Education Development Fund (ADEF).

Transport Minister Mike Henry yesterday announced that ADEF is now ready to cover partial tuition for students wishing to be trained at approved Jamaica Civil Aviation Authority (JCAA) aviation organisations, as Jamaica gears up to meet the increased global aviation demand.

Henry, who made the announcement at a special luncheon to recognise International Civil Aviation Day at the Terra Nova Hotel in Kingston yesterday, said priority will be given to students pursuing programmes in aircraft maintenance.

According to Henry, students will be able to access up to 75 per cent of their tuition from the fund, which will start at $15 million, with a ceiling of $45 million, and will be operated similar to the Students' Loan Bureau.

"It is a five-year programme and we do not expect anyone borrowing to have problems repaying because it is a high paid (career) with a guaranteed job," Henry said.

Henry, who noted that the fund has been a few years in the making, urged persons to capitalise on the opportunity.

Meanwhile, director general of the JCAA Lieutenant Colonel Oscar Derby said students attending the various aerospace colleges in Jamaica can now make their applications to the authority for financial assistance.

He explained further that funds could be disbursed by early January.

Derby said Jamaica is facilitating this specialised training to meet local and global demand.

"At the moment there is a shortage of mechanics within the industry, so we have to make sure we are furnishing mechanics for the local market as well as the global market because there is a large global demand for aircraft mechanics," Derby later told the Observer.

It takes up to four years to train students to become a licensed mechanic.

Meanwhile, Derby explained that the global aviation industry is expected to triple or near quadruple by 2026.

In addition to the 17,000 airliners being operated today, Derby said another 25,000 airliners are expected to be brought into service by 2026.

These airliners, he informed, will require 480,000 mechanics and 350,000 pilots to operate them.

"The total global training capacity to date cannot satisfy this demand and therefore there is an opportunity for business for countries who can increase the service in aviation training to satisfy this demand," he said.

"Jamaica is gearing itself for that and within the last 13 months we have approved one additional air training organisation in the form of Caribbean Aerospace College and we have also given approval for the Caribbean Aviation Training Centre to open a satellite of a similar school from Guyana, which was launched last week Wednesday," he said.

Meanwhile Transport Minister Henry said Jamaica's extremely favourable geographical location in respect of aviation and maritime industries should not be taken for granted, given the need for jobs.

The transport minister said every aircraft to be repaired today is sent back to either Singapore or Europe, since not even North America has the capacity to maintain and service aircraft engines.

The minister noted that all 180 recent graduates from the Caribbean Maritime Institute had been given jobs on ships, and there is an agreement with Singapore to place 1,000 Jamaican aerospace graduates into jobs worldwide every year.

"Singapore has an agreement through the trade office there that whoever we can train, up to a 1,000, they can take and place anywhere in the world and that was signed two years now," Henry said.

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Aerospace education fund to give young plane mechanics wings