A ticket to soaring job prospects

Hiran H. Senewiratne

AIRLINE TICKETING: The International Airline Ticketing Academy (IATC) is one of the few educational institutes in the country that conducts training programmes for airline ticketing industry personnel, its Course Director Deepal Perera said.

He said IATC Academy was established in 1991 and is registered with the Tertiary and Vocational Education Commission of Sri Lanka.

It runs three courses for the year, beginning in January, May and September respectively.

An open book exam is held and a diploma is awarded at the end of the course.

The Diploma in Travel and Tourism is the most popular programme of the Institute. So far 13,000 students have followed for the last 15 years, which has a high employability in airline and tourism related industries, he said.

Most of the students (Sri Lankan and foreign) who have successfully followed these courses over the last 15 years are now employed by airlines, IATA Travel Agents, non IATA Travel Agents and other organisations related to the tourism Industry in Sri Lanka and abroad.

This diploma course also covers important areas in the airline industry like fairs and ticketing, reservation, marketing, airport handling and on Amadeus Global distribution systems.

The minimum qualification to get enrolled for this programme is the GCE (O/L) and a good command of the English language.

Most of the students (Sri Lankan and foreign) who have successfully followed these courses over the years are now employed by airlines, IATA travel agents, non IATA travel agents and other organisations related to the tourism industry in Sri Lanka and abroad.

This programme has attracted many including school leavers, travel agents, airline staff, frequent travellers, security personnel, bank staff, forces and many more.

Further, the staff are making arrangements for companies and those who wish to do part time jobs, tour operators, embassy staff, migrants, cabin crews and many more to follow the programme.

The course fee for the programme is Rs. 9000.

Once the diploma programme is completed one could follow the Amadeus Airline computer course to enhance further knowledge, he said.

The Institute also offers scholarships in different airlines to work and experience in the industry those who complete the programme.

These airlines are Qatar Airlines, Air Arabia, United Airlines, Air Canada, All Nippon AirLines, Air Mauritius and Olympic Airlines.

In 2005 IATA International gave approval to conduct IATA/UFTAA and IATA/UFTAA course programmes running into two years which has high employability in the industry not only in Sri Lanka but also in overseas as well.

In 1987, IATA Geneva appointed Perera as an International Travel Consultant. He passed the OAG World Airways Guides Course (UK), UNCTAD Instructors course, IATA/UFTAA Diploma 1983 - 1985 (Geneva), IATA Professional Skills for Instructors (Montreal), IATA GDS-Amadeus, IATA Airline Marketing and IATA/UFTAA Foundation Instructor 2006 (Montreal).

The Academy has an agreement with the Maldivian Government to train their personnel for them as well.