By Admin
The government has been urged to effectively implement the public private partnership program [PPP] protocol because it was key in promoting and boosting joint venture investment programs and projects that benefit many stakeholders.
The appeal has been made by Capt Mike Mukula who is vice board chairman Uganda Aviation academy while addressing parents and students of that academy during their 9th graduation ceremony at which 114 students were awarded academic documents in various fields of the aviation industry.
Mukula said that given that the aviation industry had been badly hit by the Covid-19 pandemic resulting into the sudden grounding of thousands of aircrafts around the world, coupled with drastic loss of hundreds of thousands of jobs with corresponding revenue, the government of Uganda should respond by effectively implementing its PPP policy which serves as a stimulus package of supporting and building the capacities of the sector to recover from the lockdown.
He revealed that their strategic engagement with the Kenyan government to have the Utaali college converted into a regional Tourism and hospitality University would greatly help build the capacities of many young students in the East African community region aiming to join the international aviation industry as they would acquire degrees that enables them compete for international aviation jobs.
The academy board chairman Capt Francis Edward Babu told the minister of works and transport Gen.Katumba Wamala who was represented by the assistant commissioner air transport regulation Robert Ntambi that the academy has already secured many jobs for their students as they have been taken up by big time airline transport companies among them Qatar, Ethiopian, Emirates, Rwanda and Uganda airlines among others.
The chairman Umeme board Patrick Bitature said the aviation industry was a such a new sector that had previously been hit by the Covid-19 pandemic but was steadily on its recovery pathway and that the young student community should embrace it because as the country heads to smoke out of the ground its first crude oil products, both air transport and hospitality industries are very critical within the next five years.
Bitature wants young students to take up the aviation courses such that by end of the next five years, they are qualified to work in this extremely lucrative profession were staff earn in dollars and at same time get exposed to the international community through extensive travel and learning of many new things that can in the end be of great value to their future lifestyles.
Jane Kanyunyuzi who is the civil aviation authority [CAA] manager of economic regulation, a sector in charge of human resources development and placement said they would effectively take up most of the students from the academy given that their academic credentials are of international repute.
She noted that Entebbe International airport would soon become a hub which is capable of creating hundreds of new jobs given the current ongoing expansion of the facility which comes with new job attachments.
Katumba said the government was happy that the academy had taken up the responsibility of training many young people to fill in the many vacant job spaces in the aviation industry and urged more to join the highly prestigious profession which many tend to ignore.
