Maharashtra govt to train youth to become pilots

The Maharashtra government has decided to invest Rs 1 crore in an autonomous institute to train the youth of the state to become pilots. Initially, the courses will comprise modules to train the youth as cabin crew and customer service agents. A notification was issued last month towards this end.

The courses will be conducted by an institute that will be run jointly by the ITI, Thane, and a private institute which will bring the necessary equipment and human resources to train the students. The committee, under the chairmanship of the secretary for higher and technical education, has been formed to select the private partner. The state has allocated the Rs 1 crore in this year's budget to create the necessary infrastructure at Thane ITI.

Courses will comprise cabin-crew training, customer service agent, ramp agent, mechanical ramp equipment maintenance, air catering and handyman in the first phase. In the second phase, courses like pilot training and aircraft training will be introduced. All these courses will be self-financed which means, the entire cost of imparting training will be recovered from students, government will not subsidise these course like other vocational courses in ITIs.

The institute will be able to accommodate 110 students and the fees will range between Rs 3,000 (handyman) to Rs 25,000 (cabin crew) while the training period will very between 2-24 weeks. The students who successfully complete the courses, will be given certificates by the state council of vocational training (SCVT).

The government reasons that while jobs opportunities in traditional sectors are getting limited, new sectors like aviation are being opening up and the proposed second airport near Mumbai, air cargo hub at Nagpur, maintenance overhaul and repairs (MRO) station of Boeing at Nagpur are opening many job opportunities in the aviation sector.

The private player will get a 30 per cent share of the profits; 20 per cent will go to ITI and the remaining 50 per cent will be used to create better facilities and infrastructure, says the notification. Once these courses are successfully implemented at Thane ITI, they will be extended to other ITIs too.