Did you know that the cabin crew industry has the highest rejection rate in the world. "Its close to 90%," says Mr. Rajesh Verma, Chief Mentor, Kingfisher Training Academy (KTA) . "Here the problem is not of employment opportunities but of employability."

In a bid to create employable manpower for the service industry, KTA is launching  12 new cities : Delhi, Chandigarh, Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Pune, Thane, Indore, Nagpur, Kolkata, Guwahati,Hyderabad, Bangalore by February 2008.  They have finalised franchisees for all these centres. KTA has also tied up with leading nationalized   as well as private sector banks under priority sector lending norms with a 12 month gestation period. This eliminates parental pressure and only once the student gets a job, does he pay for the education.

Collectively Indian carriers have placed firm orders for approx 100 W/B aircraft and 300 N/B aircraft worth billions of dollars in the next 06 years. To fund this huge growth, requirement of trained cabin crew, ground handlers and others will be in huge demand in the near future. With the aviation industry seeing a growth of 35 to 40 % in passenger traffic between April 2006 and March 2007, and projected to grow at an annual conservative rate of 23-27% in the next five years, the dearth of skilled manpower is a major concern.

Verma said, "the 300 aircrafts present currently in the country also have an acute shortage of manpower. Every narrow body aircraft needs 30 cabin crew and every wide body aircraft (340s and 330s) needs 100 crew per aircraft. A (380) would need even more than a 100 crew. Also considering that 60% of the crew for the middle eastern airlines are Indians, and these airlines are also growing, we have a huge requirement. Across our 11 centres which will be operational by February 2008, we can train only 10000   customer service personnel per year, whereas the requirement is projected in lacs. This is not to mention the additional manpower required in ground staff, retail, BPOs and the Hotel industry. "

Mr. Michael Tan, the GM training of KTA with extensive international and national airline experience added that KTA was actively looking at a corporate training program and had already trained Cinemax group, Vodafone and  Delhi International Airport Limited and Mumbai International Airport Limited and the soon to launch training for Reliance Hospitals.

Summing up, Kunal  Vasudeva, Head Projects and Operations for KTA says, "Going forward, KTA aims to become a preferred centre for students aspiring to be service industry professionals, airlines to outsource their training requirements and also for corporates for their management training programs."

Mr. Verma categorically stated that KTA was a separate vertical under the UB group. By 2010 KTA expects to have 25 centres nationally and may even consider setting up centres in SAARC countries and the Middle East with a conservative revenue projection of 120 crores by 2010.  

Sourced From: Wowfactor Communications