In an effort to prepare and qualify 30 college graduates in General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA) as part of its continuous effort to keep up with future developments and its keen interest on innovating and raising the level of efficiency, GACA announced Wednesday the second edition of its Future Leader Program. Naeem Shibana, Assistant to the President for Central Services, said the program is one of the Human Resource Department's initiatives to develop a culture of understanding for the organization to fulfill its duties. The program qualifies trainees to work on specialized jobs in various departments. A fully integrated plan has been established and scheduled to include theoretical training, as well as on-the-job training and for the trainees to rotate between departments for one year time and be subjected to a continuous evaluation on each step of the way. Shibana further said efforts have been made for a continuous improvement of the program, one of these improvements is to assign a supervisor for every three trainees. A supervisor who will act as a mentor and serves as an ongoing assessor of the trainee development. He said GACA contracted Changi Airports Company to assess each of the specialized programs for the trainee. Among those programs scheduled are visits to some of the leading airports around the world, including Changi airport in Singapore. This coincides with GACA inspiration to shift toward commercial operation. He pointed out that the conditions to be met in the future leader program, are as follows: a Saudi citizenship, a trainee not be over 36 years old and a holder of bachelor degree holder, and 30 years old for Masters degree holders. The degree must be accredited locally if obtained outside the Kingdom institutions. His total GPA should be no less than (B) and have a TOEFEL score of not less than 4.5, or its equivalent, in addition to passing the personal interview and certain admission test set by GACA. Trainee also has to pass a medical exam and a training period of 12 months. The disciplines required are as follows: airport management, airport operation management, aviation security, air traffic control, fire and rescue, industrial engineering, engineering management, civil engineering, architecture, aerospace engineering, aviation law, commercial law, business administration, public administration, in addition to project management. Moreover, a trainee will get a monthly stipend for one year during the training that covers both theoretical and hands-on training. After graduation, the trainee will be placed in GACA and in accordance to the salary hierarchy followed by GACA. The trainee will get basic salary, housing allowance, transportation allowance, in addition to a medical coverage and a two-month Ramadan bonus. — SG
