Sky is not the limit
Guru Nanak Dev University introduces many courses in civil aviation
Varinder Walia

Guru Nanak Dev University, realising the vast potential of unemployed youth, has opened up many lucrative courses in the field of civil aviation. Keeping in view the high demand of these courses, these disciplines would provide new opportunities to students not only in India but also abroad.

State-of-the-art infrastructure

The GND varsity, located near the Indo-Pak border, is the leading university in the northern region to start such high-profile courses in civil aviation. The course of Aircraft Maintenance Engineering is being run under the aegis of the Department of Electronic Engineering and Technology of the university. The courses include Commercial Pilot Training Licensing, Air Craft Maintenance Engineering on the campus. These courses are being started in collaboration with the Civil Aviation Flying Club, Amritsar, for which state-of the-art infrastructure is being provided on the campus.

The Vice Chancellor, Dr S.P. Singh, said the university has also introduced three courses of Air Hostess, Air Steward and Airway Services in more than 10 affiliated colleges. The admission to all these courses will be based on an entrance test to be conducted by the university in the current academic session.

Dr Singh said to encourage the Punjabi youth and to provide more job avenues to the educated youth in the area of civil aviation, the university has decided to charge much lower fee for these courses than international, national and private institutions.

The Vice-Chancellor hoped that the university would get the mandatory approval of the Director-General of Civil Aviation, Government of India, shortly . He said the state government had already given its consent to these courses. There would be common infrastructure and manpower, trained human resource for imparting training mandatory for these courses.The eligibility for one-year course of Commercial Pilot Training Licensing is 10+2 with 50 per cent marks. For three-year degree course of Aircraft Maintenance Engineering, one should have passed 10+2 with non-medical stream with 50 per cent marks. The eligibility for other courses of Air Hostess, Air Steward and Airways Services is 10+2 with at least 50 per cent marks.

The course of Airways Services is non-technical. The university would provide trained staff for ground duty, reception, booking, boarding, luggage-handling and security check-up services to the aviation industry. The airways assign more than one duty to its ground staff. Therefore, the university will impart multi-purpose training to its students. He said that 200 hours practical training would be given by the Amritsar Aviation Club, while theory classes would be held on the university campus.

Elaborating the purpose of introducing such high-profile courses, the Vice-Chancellor said the university would train manpower in civil aviation and to provide more job avenues to the Punjabi youth. He said prospective students would be imparted quality teaching and training for which the syllabi had already been designed by experts. Proper monitoring and certification will be done by the University to provide jobs to the youth in the aviation industry and to check their exploitation by private institutions.

Job opportunities have multiplied in the field in recent times as privatisation has resulted not only in a number of private airlines operating in the sector, but new international airlines have also started operations in India.The aviation sector, which is dominated by Air India and Indian Airlines, has seen some remarkable changes in recent years. Private airlines have entered the sector in a big way.

This has resulted in a huge demand for trained commercial pilots. Salaries have been pushed up: a pilot can earn a handsome salary. Add to this the charm of touring the world and going to distant destinations, staying in good hotels, having a status in life and perks like getting free tickets for the family. The charm of flying high-technology machines and soaring high is another factor for the popularity of this career.

After completing the requisite courses relating to civil aviation introduced by the university, one can be absorbed in Civil Aviation Services.

These days, there is a shortage of pilots. Foreign airlines such as Gulf Air, Emirates, Singapore Airlines and Air Lanka frequently hire Indian pilots with lucrative salary packages.

There are a number of institutes recognised by the Directorate-General of Civil Aviation which conduct training in this field. Most prominent among them is Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Academy at Rae Bareli (Uttar Pradesh). There are about 18 flying clubs in India, though only about eight are reportedly active: Ludhiana, Patiala, Amritsar, Karnal, Hisar, Indore, Bombay and Delhi.

Dr Singh said nowadays, a number of foreign and domestic airways are expanding their operations in the country. Besides Amritsar International Airport, some other airports in the state like Halwara (Ludhiana) and Chandigarh are being upgraded by the government. Hence, there would be a great demand for commercial pilots, maintenance engineers and other skilled aviation personnel.

Talking about the fee structure, he said the training of commercial pilots in India and abroad is very expensive but the university would impart this training at an affordable fee.

He said in the USA and UK, the institutes imparting instructions in Pilot Licensing are charging a hefty fee i.e. more than Rs 50 lakh, whereas in India, the students have to pay more than Rs 25 lakh for this course in private institutions. Similarly, these institutions are charging more than Rs 1 lakh for the airhostess course.

Mr Rashpal Singh, Chief Civil Aviation Officer, stationed at Amritsar, said his organisation feels proud to be associated with Guru Nanak Dev University for starting these prime courses in civil aviation. He, on behalf of the Civil Aviation Club of Amritsar, said that they would extend full cooperation for the success of this venture.