Air Seychelles’ academy – training for the future |28 August 2010

To be able to thrive in this competitive environment means having a highly-trained, skilled and competent workforce. This is no small matter to achieve, given the very high cost of airline-specific training sourced from abroad.  

To meet that challenge, President James Michel opened the Air Seychelles Training Academy in March 2006. 

As executive chairman, Captain David Savy told staff afterwards: “We have to prepare for future challenges. Rest assured there will be many to come, and you all need to be well-armed with the most important ingredient of all – knowledge.
 
“I sincerely hope the academy is the beginning of great things to come. I would like to see it become a beehive of activity.”

And what a beehive it has become! The Air Seychelles Training Academy – in close collaboration with other units within the company – organises around 500 training events each year, in a wide range of  programmes.

Of these 500 events, about two-thirds are conducted by in-house trainers, most of whom are part-time, training on top of their regular duties.

These in-house trainers play a key part as role models and are also crucial to Air Seychelles’ aim to provide quality training in the most cost-effective way.

From July 2009 to June 2010, 3,059 staff attended 357 in-house training events with more than 50 courses, on subjects as diverse as airport service procedures, aviation security, dangerous goods awareness and crew resource management. Courses last between a few hours and two weeks. 

Besides courses related to safety and regulatory requirements, the airline also has educational programmes aimed at general staff development such as in IT, which is conducted by a full-time trainer from the IT division.

The in-house training has received outstanding feedback from the staff and is also internationally recognised. The Air Seychelles Training Academy has, in the past, been selected by the International Airline Transport Agency (IATA) to host regional courses, and in April 2009 the academy’s head Alan Renaud was invited to conduct a four-day Human Factors in Aviation course for senior operational management at Air Namibia in Windhoek, and again in June 2010 for Air Tanzania in Dar es Salaam.
 
Trainers from other divisions also routinely train staff working overseas or overseas partners on company procedures. In February 2009, the human resources, training and administration department achieved ISO 9001:2000 certification from BM Trada UK. 

The national airline spends about €630,000 annually on training, showing the company’s commitment to continuous learning and improvement. Over 90% of this goes towards overseas training and bringing external trainers in-company.

Yet only some 500 or so staff are trained this way. From July 2009 to June 2010, about 60 staff went on overseas training (this does not include the pilots undergoing simulator training). In- company training provides courses that are relevant to a wider range of staff and are thus more cost-effective to host locally. 

Air Seychelles encourages its staff to upgrade and improve skills, in support of the company’s service strategy of excellence through know-how and its mission to invest in its people “for the mutual benefit of the company, the individual and the community”.