A soaring career awaits a group of 15 pilots, engineers and managers of Qatar Airways as they receive coaching from aviation expert from Massey University in terms an Agreement.
The Agreement, signed in Doha recently, will allow the young Qataris to undergo a web-based and personal learning through a two-year MBA Programme.
The Pact provides for a programme of 15 papers delivered as contact courses by Massey lecturers, supported by a web-based learning management system.
Massey lecturers attached to the MBA programme and the School of Aviation will visit Doha for five days at a time to deliver each of the contact courses.
The students will also travel to Massey’s Manawatu Campus in Palmerston North for two papers. The first visit will be in November 2014 followed by a study tour of leading New Zealand organisations in March 2015.
Customised Programme
School of Aviation Chief Executive Ashok Poduval said that the Programme has been designed specifically for Qatar Airways.
“It contains all the essential components of a traditional MBA in terms of developing strategic competencies and carving out personalised goals and career paths, with a number of special topic papers and a research paper with an aviation focus,” he said.
He described the Agreement as ‘an important breakthrough for the University in a key international market.’
“The Director of the Higher Education Institute of Qatar is planning to visit our campus early next year along with senior Qatar Airways officials. This will hopefully lead to (Qatari) Government accreditation of the Programme and open the possibility of offering our MBA courses more widely in Qatar,” Mr Poduval said.
“We hope this will also be a pilot for offering other courses and degrees in the region and I am confident that if this programme is successful, Qatar Airways will send further cohorts of students in the future,” he said.
Vital experience
The visits to New Zealand, and especially the corporate study tour, will offer Qatar Airways staff an international learning experience, Mr Poduval says.
According to Mr Poduval, the study tour involving visits to major New Zealand organisations will enhance student knowledge about the management strategies used in other industries.
These visits are not observation tours; they will offer practical experiences that relate directly to the Strategic Management Paper under the Programme, he said.
The aviation special topics in the Programme include safety systems and investigations and decision-making for aviation managers.
Qatar Airways chief executive Akbar Al Baker said that the Massey MBA offering was a part of the airline’s broader Scholarship Programme for employees.
“We are sponsoring Qataris to work at Qatar Airways and helping them to build their career paths in the aviation industry,” he said.
The picture here shows students of the Qatar Airways MBA programme at the launch with (from left) Ashok Poduval, Dr Kholode Al-Obaidli (VP Nationalisation, Qatar Airways), Rodney Harris (New Zealand Ambassador to Saudi Arabia and Qatar) and Michael O’Shaughnessy (Director International Relations, Massey University).
