Bristow Earmarks N758.4m For Pilots’ Training

One of the foremost helicopter companies in Nigeria, Bristow has earmarked $4.8 million about (N758.4million) to train 16 indigenous pilot this year.

The Managing Director of the company, Mr Akin Oni, who stated this in Lagos in a chat with newsmen said the training which takes place both in Nigeria and overseas is expected to cost about $300,000 on each pilots trainee.

Mr Oni said it had been the policy of the company since 22 years ago to train indigenous manpower for the industry and every year bright young Nigerians with impeccable criteria are selected and sent for training.

The Managing Director who was represented by the Head of Human Resources, Mr Femi Collins, said the beneficiaries who already have initial training with private pilot Licence (PPL) would be taken to Bristow’s training academy in Florida, United States.

“We have cultivated the culture and we are the highest in rotary division of the aviation industry in the training of Nigerians. We do this every year and out of the 2,000 candidates that applied for the training 16 were selected and they are being given briefing before they depart for their training,” he stated.

Bristow according to him, will train those who did not have initial training at the International Aviation Technology, Zaria (NCAT) before  they would be taken overseas for further training, while those with PPL would be taken to Florida.

Mr Oni said the company was using local training schools in order to deepen the local content policy of the federal government and would continue to increase local manpower for the Aviation sector.

He explained that the goal of the company was to ensure that overtime local pilots and engineers would dominate the manpower index in the Aviation Sector, noting that many of the pilots in Nigeria today working for different airlines and other organizations benefitted from Bristow’s training scheme.