Seventeen students who recently graduated from the Art Williams and Harry Wendt Aeronautical Engi-neering School were urged to boost their qualifications in order to become more marketable in the sector.
In a press release, the Govern-ment Information Agency (GINA) said Prime Minister Samuel Hinds was among the special invitees along with Executive Director of the Aircraft Owners Association of Guyana, Captain Malcolm Chan-a-Sue, Head of Guyana Office for Investment Geoff Da Silva and Director of Maintenance of LIAT Alan Alexander. Mavendra Chand was named the best graduating student.
The graduates had completed three years of study while several of the first and second year students advanced in their ranks. They studied subjects such as basic instruments, propellers, mechanical systems, aircraft regulation, system and gas turbine engines, radio communication and navigation. Highlights at the ceremony included a display of the graduates’ work including tool kits and a re-manufactured aircraft which had crashed near to the Kaieteur Falls. The work is being done by a team of young engineers who are all graduates of the school. It is the third such effort undertaken for the year.
In his feature address Da Silva spoke of developing Guyana into an open economy, positing that the aviation sector would be the main beneficiary. He said he was optimistic that in this new economy, the Ogle airport and the Cheddi Jagan International Airport will become important links to North America. Da Silva said he believes also that the students are fortunate to be involved in a field which will give them the opportunity to travel across the country.
Meanwhile, Chan-a-Sue boasted about the school being the only International Organisation of Standards (ISO) 9001 rated tertiary training organisation owned and operated by self-supporting Guyanese. After nine years of negotiations with Caribbean Airlines a subsidiary of the school successfully started at the Piarco International Airport in Trinidad. The school started in September with 20 engineering apprentices. Plans are also in train to open a branch of the school in The Bahamas early next year.
The School will also expand its curriculum next year to include advanced training. Classified module five level of training will qualify participants to work on jets and larger aircraft. Chan-a-Sue said this training is in anticipation of the more advanced aircraft that are expected to land on the new Ogle airstrip by the end of next year. “You cannot with all the technology and all the brilliant ideas make anything happen unless you have well trained and well motivated human resources,” he said. Despite the School’s many successes and achievements, the students were urged to work with a goal of meeting the many demands of the aviation industry.
