Aviation Industry India - Vocational Skills

Aviation industry soars high, with the growing industry demands, skill-based education plays its part effectively in the changing national environment. There is an urgent need to redefine the critical elements of imparting skill-based education and training to make them flexible, contemporary, relevant, inclusive and creative.

In this direction IESP is a professional training arm of Airawat Group aimed at imparting skill education with a 360 degree approach. IESP has taken the initiative to impart training and education for different forte in such a way that it could benefit the industry by providing the talent and skilled professionals.

 'Institute for Excellence in Services & Planning' was started with an objective to provide well-trained and highly skilled service professionals in the service sector. The IESP leadership and team comprises of domain leaders and education experts from various fields like consulting, hospitality, aviation, retail, healthcare, road safety, infrastructure etc. The collective knowledge and experience of the team provides a realistic training and offer an opportunity for a valuable exchange of ideas and information.

Mr. Gurpreet Khanna, CEO and Director of Airawat Group shares his expertise in the field of aviation and education.

Indiaeducationdiary: Please Brief us About your Educational Qualification and Early Life?

Gurpreet Khanna: My professional career started in the year 2001 working as a team Leader in E-Funds, one of the leading BPOs in India. Qualified as an External student of Economics from the prestigious London School of Economics, UK but dropped out later to kick start my venture, Airawat Aviation Pvt. Ltd., the flagship division of Airawat Group, along with my father, Mr. A.S. Khanna, Chairman & Managing Director, Airawat Group.

In the year 2005, he co-founded Airawat Aviation Pvt. Ltd. followed by the formation of Airawat Group and have been working as the Director and CEO of the Group ever since.

Indiaeducationdiary:  Tell us why you thought to set up Airawat Group instead of other businesses?

Gurpreet Khanna: Mr. A S Khanna the Groups MD and founder having nearly 36 yrs of experience in the Aviation Industry and having undertaken several projects overseas envisaged the need in the Industry. Thus in 2005 started Airawat Aviation Pvt Ltd for Manpower Operations. The Groups core activities involve Manpower Operations, Education, Consultancy and Trading, the later two being relatively new.

With the boom in the Aviation Industry around 2005 came the trend for outsourcing and need for skilled human resource and hence in  2007 we started Airawat Aviation Academy for training candidates to be part of the Industry.

Indiaeducationdiary: What is the business model of Airawat Group?

Gurpreet Khanna: Mr. A.S. Khanna (Ex GM - Air India) leads Airawat group as a Chairman & Managing Director.  The Group consists of Airawat Aviation Pvt. Ltd., Institute for Excellence in Services & Planning (IESP) - the Education & Training division, Airawat Aviation GSE Pvt. Ltd. - the Manufacturing division and Airawat Aviation Inc. (USA).

The Group is being managed by an experienced team comprising of senior professionals, technical domain experts and education experts from various  fields like Project Management, Consulting, Hospitality, Healthcare, Aviation, Retail, Road Safety, Infrastructure etc., bringing in more than 100 man years  of cumulative experience and significant expertise into the company. From a small team of professionals, the organization today has journeyed into being an 800 strong workforce.

The Group's revenue is divided among its skilled Manpower Operations business, Trading, Education & Consultancy.  Currently Manpower operations accounts for 60% of its revenue and education being about 30%. Rest is equally divided between Trading and Consultancy, which are both a recent venture of the Group; however, the management is confident of them growing to a sizable percentage.

Indiaeducationdiary: Aviation sector passing through turbulent time, what is reaction to it and what is your group's planning to counter it?

Gurpreet Khanna: Though the aviation industry has gone through tough times, the need for skill resources in the Aviation sector has certainly not reduced. Infact there are more and more airports opening up. With the aviation sector undergoing tough times, the need for outsourcing is also growing. Airawat Group has also moved into the growing Healthcare & Retail sector for fulfilling the labor requirements at the Airport.

Indiaeducationdiary: Do you see a huge demand-supply gap in the skilled manpower requirement in aviation sector? 

Gurpreet Khanna: The gap is definitely there and more so at the mid managerial level. As the sector grew so fast there is a vacuum created at the mid and higher levels. There is an urgent need to redefine the critical elements of imparting skill-based education and training to make professionals more flexible, contemporary, relevant, inclusive and creative.

Indiaeducationdiary:  Do you think Government is not promoting the sector ?

Gurpreet Khanna: It is a given understanding that you need to have deep pockets to run an airline. The Airline industry is governed by many external factors such as ATF, Security Threats, Epidemics and recession. Aviation Turbine Fuel (ATF) plays a very important role as it constitutes nearly 40% of operational cost. Governments can support better by reducing the taxes levied on ATF, thus reducing overall cost of operations.

Indiaeducationdiary:  Training institutes are playing crucial role to fill the demands of aviation sector for skilled manpower, how do you see this?

Gurpreet Khanna: In India, the emphasis has been on general education, with vocational education at the receiving end. This has resulted in large number of educated people remaining unemployed. The planners of academic course and the institutions have now recognized this phenomenon. Our aim at IESP is to develop a curriculum that not only ensures job opportunities for students but also fulfils the need of the industry and in the process arrests the huge dropout rate.

I do feel that training institutes need to emphasize more on the intrinsic requirements in the Aviation sector.

Indiaeducationdiary: What all courses offered by Airawat Aviation Academy?

Gurpreet Khanna: The Airawat Group formed the Airawat Aviation Academy (P) Ltd. (AAAPL), in 2007, envisioning the need for well-trained and highly skilled service professionals in the field of Aviation. The growing demand for customer satisfaction in areas of service excellence and planning led to institutionalizing AAAPL's training delivery to the next level. This translated into the creation of the 'Institute for Excellence in Services & Planning (IESP)' in 2011. Hence the organization is no more called as Airawat Aviation Academy.  Institute for Exceleence in Services and planning is catering not only to Aviation, but Retail, Healthcare & Road Safety (for corporate & governments) as well. 

We currently offer 4-6 months courses in all the sectors and will soon be starting the BBA & MBA in these sectors.

Indiaeducationdiary:  So what is the motto behind creation of 'Institute for Excellence in Services & Planning (IESP)'?

Gurpreet Khanna: With training more than 10,000 employees of Airlines, Airports, Allied Services and approx 4000 students recruited in the industry, Airawat has successfully made its mark. Envisaging the need for skilled human resource in the other sectors of the growing service industry, the board decided to re-launch the brand to be able to cater to all other sectors.

Indiaeducationdiary: What kind of placement support does IESP enjoy?

Gurpreet Khanna: Considering the trust the industry has in IESP on account of training so many professionals on not just behavioral but technical aspects, IESP is recognized for quality training by the industry. Hence our students are well accepted in the industry. We maintain an above 90% placement record so far.

Indiaeducationdiary:  Where are your centers located? What are your expansion plans?

Gurpreet Khanna: Our current centers are located at Mumbai & Cochin and we intend to have 20 centers across the country by 2016. Upcoming centers will be at Delhi & Siliguri.

Indiaeducationdiary:  What are your views on the way skills training & development is delivered in India? What do you think needs to be improved?

Gurpreet Khanna: A lot of training is still theory based and that definitely needs to change as skills cannot be obtained by just classroom programs. A deeper understanding and specially the hardships of the industry need to be clearly dealt while training students as this will lead to less attrition for companies in the sector. There is a great requirement to enhance the behavioral skills of the students now days.

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