By Ashery Mkama,
THE Tanzania Civil Aviation Authority (TCAA)
has sponsored five students who left yesterday for South Africa to
pursue a two-year pilot training course at the cost of 310,000 US
dollars (496m/-).
TCAA Director General, Mr Fadhili Manongi, said the candidates passed
an aptitude test conducted on 19 March, this year, at Civil Aviation
Training Centre in which five out of 272 qualified for the sponsorship.
"It's my hope that the students will return home after graduating and
will be employed by local airline companies to address the current
shortage of pilots," he said.
Mr Manongi made the comments yesterday in Dar es Salaam during a
brief farewell function for the students where he also said they have
secured 200,000 US dollars from various stakeholders.
He noted that in the near future they are expected also to get
financial support from various donors as well as loans from other
financial institutions in the country.
Mr Manongi clarified that during their studies, the students will
study a course known as Integrated Frozen Airline Transport Pilot
Licence Course with Instrument ratings, including CRM and Dangerous
goods course.
On his part, Vice-Chairperson of TCAA Training Fund, Mr Gaudence Temu
said that following a shortage of local pilot, they came with the idea
of establishing the fund to mitigate the problem.
One of the students, Ms Doris Bariki who graduated her BA degree in
Industrial Engineering and Management at the University of Dar es Salaam
(UDSM) in 2012, said she is happy to be among the five candidates who
will train as pilots.
She urged her fellow girls to make use of opportunities available so as to achieve their targeted goals.
