We established our Next Generation of Aviation Professionals (NGAP) Initiative to ensure there would be enough qualified and competent aviation professionals to operate, manage, and maintain the air transport system around the world. A significant portion of the current workforce is nearing retirement, and so many professionals transitioned to other industries following the pandemic. Access to affordable training and education continues to be a key challenge and aviation is competing with other sectors for highly skilled professionals. Additional factors, like the lack of harmonized competencies and qualifications in certain aviation disciplines and limited awareness among young people about the wide range of aviation career opportunities, further complicate workforce development.
To advance our NGAP goals, we established the ICAO NGAP strategy that outlined our NGAP vision, mission, objectives, and key focus areas. The strategy provides a global framework that guides the development of aviation workforce plans at international, regional, and national levels and bring together all aviation stakeholders to address the current and future shortfalls in aviation human capital. To further emphasize the importance of this area of aviation, we urged Member States to identify long-term human resources needs. States were encouraged to develop strategies to attract, train, educate, and retain aviation professionals, with a specific focus on promoting gender equality.
We are working with the Government of Angola (their delegation is pictured above) to cooperate on developing their national NGAP strategy. Signed by Ms. Bernarda de Paiva Henrique, President of the Board of Directors of the National Air Navigation Company (ENNA-EP) on behalf of the minister Angola’s Minister of Transport Ricardo Daniel Sandão Quérois Viegas de Abreu and ICAO Secretary General Juan Carlos Salazar, this ambitious new agreement represents a significant step toward establishing a sustainable and robust aviation workforce to support the country’s growing air transport system.
The NGAP strategy will be designed to address the workforce needs of Angola’s aviation industry over the next 15 years through capacity-building. It targets enhanced training capabilities and facilities, and the development of comprehensive plans to attract, educate, train, and retain the next generation of aviation professionals.
This, in turn, is key to ensuring the availability of a skilled workforce, capable of contributing effectively to progress towards zero fatality and zero emissions global strategic aspirational goals for air transport, as determined by the Member States of ICAO. This initiative aims to create diverse and rewarding career opportunities in aviation for young Angolans across the country, especially women and girls. It represents a significant step forward for Angola, reflecting the government’s commitment to global aviation standards and plans and to the long-term development of its aviation sector.