SriLankan Aviation College celebrates a year of success

Sri Lankan Aviation College Award

The SriLankan Aviation College celebrated its first anniversary recently at Bandaranaike International Airport in Colombo, completing a year of impressive achievements and success in airline and travel education.

SriLankan Aviation College General Manager Primal De Silva said: “Within this year, we have built up and strengthened the SriLankan Aviation College and it has become a centre for education that our country can be proud of. With our team of dedicated faculty and staff, and the assistance of our many international and Sri Lankan partners, I have no doubt that our second year will be even more successful.”

The launch of the SriLankan Aviation College (www.srilankanaviationcollege.com) a year ago, brought together the many training institutions at SriLankan Airlines, concentrating 36 years of experience.

SriLankan Aviation College Deputy General Manager Buddhika Hewawasam added: “In the coming year, the college will continue to expand the horizons for training airline staff and newcomers to the aviation, travel and tourism professions. We are opening the doors for youngsters to enter rewarding and lucrative careers in global industries.”

The college gained global recognition as a centre of excellence in aviation development throughout the Asia-Pacific region, when it was granted associate membership in the prestigious TRAINAIR PLUS program of the International Civil Aviation Association (ICAO), the global governing body for the aviation industry.

It is already accredited by international bodies such as ICAO, the International Air Transport Association (IATA), the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), and the Civil Aviation Authorities of Sri Lanka, Maldives and Pakistan.

The college’s experience has already been showcased at global events such as the Asia Pacific Airline Training Symposium in Bangkok; the EASA Annual Conference in Luxembourg; the IATA Global Training Partner Congress in Hamburg; and the ICAO Regional Aviation Training and TRAINAIR PLUS Symposium in New Delhi.

The college has a state of the art facility at Bandaranaike International Airport with a dedicated panel of instructors, a branch in the Maldivian capital of Male, and an m-learning platform for distance learning. It has six faculties - SriLankan Technical Training; Travel and Tourism; Cargo and Dangerous Goods Regulations; Image Consultancy and Cabin Crew; Airport Service; and Soft Skills and Corporate Training. It is one of the few institutions in Asia approved to conduct training to the European qualifications EASA Part 147 and Part 66.

It also works closely with the corporate sector, providing training programs for banks, universities, professional institutions and other corporate players in areas such as Business Etiquette and Personality Development.

The college has helped launch Aviation Clubs in hundreds of schools throughout the country, opening the eyes of youngsters to the wonders of aviation and the rewarding opportunities of careers in the global aviation and hospitality industries. It organised and sponsored major events in Colombo and Kandy in 2015 for thousands of students from schools in these regions.

The college’s first graduation ceremony was held in April last year at the Bandaranaike Memorial International Conference Hall (BMICH) in Colombo, for 250 students who had completed programmes of studies in many fields.