By Prosper Makene
The National Institute of Transport (NIT) in Tanzania has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Air Tanzania Company Limited (ATCL) to bring efficiency in the aviation industry.
Speaking to journalists shortly after renewing the MoU in NIT’s Mabibo campus, Dar es Salaam end of this week, ATCL Ladislaus Matindi said that the collaboration will give the room for two organizations to share expertise.
Eng. Matindi also said that the collaborations with NIT will further reduce the costs that the national flag-carrier often use while sending its workers abroad for trainings. “We currently have 120 workers who can receive trainings here at NIT. Air industry personnel are required to have regular trainings as per their licenses. Therefore, this collaboration is very vital to our organization,” he said. “We spent much taking our pilots and engineers abroad for training.”
He added: “Taking a pilot for 3 to 4 hours training in South Africa is very expensive than a pilot getting such training here at National Institute of Transport where we could only use our buses to bring them here.”
On his part, NIT’s Rector Prof. Zacharia Mganilwa said: “We renewed the MoU that signed in 2012 between NIT and ATCL to collaborate among other things in designing and conducting various training programmes, exchanging information, data and documents related to aviation related programmes.”
The main objective of the MoU is to enable the two Government institutions to be free to collaborate in areas related to aviation programmes. According to the agreement NIT will deal more with the theoretical aspects, the engineering component, while on the other hand 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,” he said.
Prof. 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.
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.”
NIT 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.
The Writer works with National Institute of Transport, Tanzania Communications Department.