The Hindu Business Line : Changi Airport launching aviation education in India

Changi International Airport Services has tied up with United Educational Institutes Global or UEI Global for launching aviation courses in India. According to the UEI, this is an exclusive and first of its kind partnership with CIAS in the country.

UEI, the educational venture of Berggruen Holdings will be offering two courses in aviation which are in-flight service and airport service management.

Mr Praveen Roy, Managing Director and CEO of UEI, told Business Line that the entire curriculum of the airport services course and parts of the other course has been designed by CIAS. “Not just the curriculum but they are going to audit the courses and train our faculty as well.”

Incorporated in 1977, CIAS as an independent ground handling company has provided professional ground handling services to a diverse clientele of international airlines at Singapore Changi Airport. A subsidiary of Dnata and a member of the Emirates Group of companies, it offers a full range of ground handling, cargo and catering services to over 25 airlines in Singapore.

Course fees

Both the courses will be for six months. While the first three months will be focused on personality development of the candidate; acquiring appropriate language and hospitality skills etc., the next three months will involve hands-on training at the airports, in-flight security and safety and other aspects of cabin crew. While the fees for in-flight course is Rs 75,000 that of airport services is Rs 45,000.

Berggruen Holdings is a private company headquartered in New York and one of the investment vehicles of the Berggruen family. The company’s investments in India are diversified and apart from education, also include real estate development, a greenfield chain of boutique budget hotels, resorts and serviced apartments, car rental and its associated business and heavy equipment rental.

Currently, the courses are being offered in seven academies set up by the UEI which include four in the National Capital Region and one each in Pune, Thiruvananthapuram and Jaipur. All the academies will have the aviation courses in a phased manner, Mr Roy said.

Realistic training

As part of the infrastructure for imparting training, he said that the institute aims to provide “realistic training” to the candidates and also plans to charter an aircraft for the same in the future to eventually provide a real flight experience on a two-four hour flight.

Apart from aviation, the UEI is offering courses in hospitality as well. The institute has collaborated with Hotelschool, the Hague, the Netherlands, to develop several fast-track programmes in hospitality education.

Currently in six locations - Rohini (West Delhi), Noida, Thiruvananthapuram, Pune and Bangalore, the institute plans to go to Faridabad, Ghaziabad, Agra, Ludhiana, Chandigarh, Lucknow, Dehradun, Hyderabad, Jallandhar, Raipur, Mumbai spiralling the number to 50 academies by 2010.

Berggruen Holdings plans to invest $12 million in this initiative over the next three years.