AfricaPress-Tanzania: THE National Institute of Transport (NIT) has invigorated its Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Air Tanzania Company Limited (ATCL) in a move to make excellent collaboration that brings efficiency in the aviation industry.
The main objective of the MoU which was signed in 2012 is to enable the two government institutions to collaborate among others in designing and conducting various training programmes, exchanging information, data and documents related to aviation related programmes.
Speaking after visiting ATCL headquarters in Dar es Salaam with members of NIT Governing Council, institute’s Rector Prof. Zacharia Mganilwa said: “We have agreed to renew the MoU that signed in 2012 between NIT and ATCL. The agreement complements each other, whereby the NIT will deal more with the theoretical aspects, the engineering component, while on the other hand the ATCL will deal more with the practical side, the flying aspect.”
“The NIT has always remained the best institution when it comes to training in transportation. The co-operation with the ATCL will just fill the gaps in aviation which fortunately enough, we had already identified,” boasted Prof. Mganilwa.
Mganilwa said that the collaboration with the ATCL will assist NIT’s School of Aviation and Technology to produce more professionals who will support operation of the national flag carrier.
“Today, ATCL has 575 employees but after two or three years it will have more than 1,000 employees who mostly will be Tanzanians,” he said.
“We established School of Aviation Technology in 2015 with two departments (Departments of Flying and Operations Management and Aeronautical Engineering) as the move to produce enough professionals who will support the sector,” Mganilwa said.
He added: “The Institute has divided Air transport into two major groups based on the training nature and delivery approach. These are Air Transport Management and Operations, and Aviation Engineering as well as Pilot Training.”
He pointed out that the Institute has commenced the 5 phase ATO accreditation for the Pilot training. “We are also in the fourth stage (demonstration stage) which requires a training aircraft,” he said.
Eng. Mganilwa also said that the Institute has already announced a tender for purchasing training aircraft and they are in communication with the Manufacturer to purchase two Cessna 172 Skyhawks.
He notifies that the Pilot Training Base is expected to start in Dodoma and then later establish a bigger base at the Kilimanjaro International Airport (KIA).
“We have secured 21.25 million US dollars from the World Bank through the EASTRIP project (2019- 2024) aiming at establishing a Centre of Excellence in Aviation and Transport Operations (CEATO),” he said.
“… we also have 60 hectares at the Kilimanjaro International Airport (KIA) which will be used for establishing the Aviation Flying School funded by the World Bank,” he said.
In establishing Centre of Excellence in Aviation and Transport Operations, NIT has 30 Academic Staff pursuing Master Degrees and professional programmes, 150 Academic Staff trained in Pedagogical techniques and 20 instructors attached to Industry.
“In training equipment, we plan to have 3 training aircrafts, cabin crew mock ups, state of the art flight simulators, aviation system trainers, simulation based training programmes and virtual maintenance trainers,” Prof Mganilwa disclosed.
“In training Facilities, we will have CoE building, Hi Tech training workshop building, aircraft hangars at JNIA and KIA, cabin crew training facility and student hostels,” he concluded.
Speaking at the sideline of the event, ATCL Ag. Managing Director Captain Said Hamad lauds the NIT Governing Council and ATCL officials for the good discussion which greatly benefited both sides.
“We have decided to increase solidarity and work together and coordinate the right ways that will enable NIT to produce a young generation who will be profitable in our airline,” Capt. Hamad said.
