A total of $63.9 million has already been spent at the Aviation Campus of the University of T&T (UTT) in Camden, Couva. However, the future of the agency seems to be hanging in the balance since there has been no allocation this fiscal year for its operations.
According to the Public Sector Investment Programme (PSIP) 2018, the entire $10 million allocation has been expended towards outstanding commitments for works completed under the project UTT Camden which started over four years ago.
Even with the existence of this million-dollar facility, classes for the BSc in Aviation Technology and Management and a certificate programme in Aviation Management and Maintenance are being held at the UTT’s Point Lisas campus.
Students, however, go to the hangar at Camden, Couva (which houses a Boeing 727, a Sikorsky helicopter and a Cessna 310), to do practicals. The students are unable to stay for more than two hours per session because there are no toilet facilities, water, classrooms or furniture in the hangar. A UTT source said furniture and equipment had been purchased and delivered for the outfitting of the building but there was none in the hangar. Instructors have been forced in some instances to purchase tools to train students.
Practicals, according to Education Minister Anthony Garcia, were being conducted at Caribbean Airlines Limited and the National Helicopter Services Limited in Couva.
Garcia said that “barring unforeseen circumstances, the students are scheduled to be relocated to the Aviation Campus in the second term of the academic year, 2018”.
‘It has potential to be flagship of UTT’
The UTT source said concerns were growing over the institute’s future as it had the potential “to be the flagship of UTT, attracting foreign students for aviation approved engineering training and to earn forex. The hangar can become an approved maintenance facility for the regions ATR fleet, the 3,000-foot runway can become a revenue earner for landing fees…we can have a daily Tobago flight from that runway…there is a weather station down there that can back up Piarco...think about the possibilities”.
Former minister of tertiary education Fazal Karim questioned why monies were not allocated towards the campus in this year’s budget since its main objective was to provide a holistic approach for enhancing the supply of training and education in aviation geared towards bolstering the industry.
“It is strategically positioned to provide the requisite skills and training necessary for the development of Trinidad’s second international airport that will create jobs, increase the much needed inflows of foreign exchange, diversify the economy and improve our competitiveness globally. I truly believe the Aviation Campus can contribute significantly to our country’s economic development,” Karim said.
Karim has called upon UTT to move expeditiously to connect electrical power, water and sewer systems to allow for the immediate use of the facility for training and revenue generation. He is also calling on the university to seek international accreditation for the aviation campus to allow it to attract foreign students and investments.
He said the 20-plus students who graduated in 2016 were now employed at Caribbean Airlines, National Helicopter Services, Briko Air Services, Bristow Air Services and the T&T Air Guard.
Karim said the aviation programme turned out to be one of the most popular programmes offered by the UTT. The decision to offer that programme, he said, was supported by a labour market study done by the National Training Agency on the needs of the aviation industry.
Questions sent to both UTT’s Chairman of the Board of Governors and Deputy Chairman, Prof Kenneth Julien and Prof Clement Imbert, respectively, on the current status and future plans of the campus were not answered.