Recently, aeronautics students at the University of Trinidad and Tobago’s (UTT) aviation campus created aviation history by successfully flying the first locally designed and manufactured remote control model aircraft.
In a related development, 90 per cent of a recent intake of aircraft technicians by Caribbean Airlines Ltd (CAL) were graduates of UTT’s aviation campus.
These two events underscore the contribution that UTT is making towards the development of world-class aviation education in the Caribbean, particularly in TT.
UTT, the brainchild of Prof Kenneth Julien, TC, opened in 2004 as the first full local degree-awarding tertiary-level educational institute. Prof Julien was the first chairman of UTT’s board of governors.
UTT recognised the vital importance of aircraft maintenance in the continuing airworthiness of aircraft and maintaining the highest levels of safety in the global aviation industry.
In October 2014, then Minister of Tertiary Education Fazal Karim took the initiative and launched the UTT aviation campus. The campus at present occupies ten acres of land strategically located next to the Camden airfield, which was built by the US during World War II.
The Boeing 727-200 F donated by Federal Express landed flawlessly at Camden in August 2015.
The campus has a 39,000-square-foot hangar that can accommodate the Boeing 737 series of aircraft. It is equipped with state-of-the-art classrooms.
Practical training is done using workshops and modern shop-based gas turbine engines, variable pitch propellers, electrical, fuel system, auto pilot and instruments simulators. Practical training is further supplemented by hands-on work on a Boeing 727-200 F equipped with JT8-17/15 jet engines, a Sikorsky S76A++ rotorcraft and a Cessna 310 aircraft. These facilities are second to none in the Caribbean region.
The aviation programs offered by UTT are under-graduate degrees in aircraft maintenance and management, aeronautical and airworthiness engineering and postgraduate degrees that are a combination of taught and research-based courses. A certificate programme in aviation technology is also offered at UTT.
All UTT’s aviation training programmes are accredited by the Accreditation Council of TT (ACTT) and qualify for GATE funding. They also satisfy the knowledge requirements for the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) Part 66 Aircraft Maintenance Engineer Licence (AMEL).
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EASA regulates all aviation activities in European Union member countries and its AMEL standards have been adopted by a number of countries worldwide, including Australia, New Zealand, Singapore and the United Kingdom.
The aviation campus faculty comprises of a cadre of highly trained and qualified lecturers under the visionary leadership of its director, Mr Parissram Jaggernath, a former CAL aircraft maintenance and technical training manager. Mr Jaggernath, an aviation veteran, holds several aircraft maintenance engineer licences and a mas
