President of Aviation Round Table (ART), Air Commodore Demola Onitiju (retd), has described human resource as the greatest asset in any functional entity, community or nation.
Onitiju stated this at the 2024 first quarter (Q1) breakfast meeting well attended by participants from different professional groups both within and outside the sector.
According to Onitiju, an industry that invests massively in its human resource will definitely reap a bumper harvest of successes, even as he added that a well remunerated and trained staff perform optimally.
He said, “They are confident, courteous and professional in their approach to problem-solving. In the past four years or thereabout, the global pandemic, COVID-19, triggered massive paradigm shifts in global activities. Many nations around the world recalibrated their human and material resources to tackle new challenges in the aviation environment leveraging on technology and innovation. Aviation is team work; pilots, cabin crew members, ground staff and engineers work together as a team. Every segment is important.”
Air Commodore Onitiju, while emphasising how ART recognise a robust management plan through scalable skills acquisition, technical and operational, including soft skills, said this could encourage employees to adapt to new situations and crucially deliver a winning customer experience.
The ART also recognised the importance of soft skills, which is attainable through effective communication, team work and mutual respect as being fundamental for aviation professionals with soft skills complementing the technical expertise of aviation professionals.
The aim of the meeting, Onitiju said, was to re-awaken the stakeholders in the Nigerian aviation industry of the need to prioritise human capital development to ensure career progression stability, succession and foster harmonious workforce relations.
He said, “As we all know, a harmonious blend of technical and soft skills ensures safe and efficient aviation operations. The ART believes that human resources development in the Nigerian aviation sector should integrate modern technology, cyber security, Artificial Intelligence, innovation and data analysis together with state-of-the-art aeronautical and navigational aids.
“It is our view that the optimisation of processes, efficient use of resources would promote seamless coordination between the operators and the ground handlers, caterers and cleaners. But all these come at a price – training.”
While Onijitu insisted that he was convinced that a frontal approach to human capital development could be enhanced through training with the help of secured career progression, the president of the non-governmental body called for the need to accord insurance a pride of place in airport and facility management.
“Aviation insurance of the main object of service, the aircraft, is presumed. Service Level Agreements designed to promote efficiency, qualitative and sustainable standard will be better observed in accordance with the stipulated requirements of the insurers. A robust human capital development strategy, in our view, will contribute immensely to improvement in the management of the turnaround time as well as the run around time,” Onitiju added.
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