STAFFERS of the Art Williams and Harry Wendt Aeronautical Engineering School (AHWAES) yesterday turned out another batch of certified aircraft maintenance engineers during its sixteenth annual graduation exercise at Ogle International Airport yesterday afternoon.

The venue was the Wings Aviation Ltd. Hangar .

Twenty students graduated from the three -year programme and Mirza Wazid a student sponsored by the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) was the best graduating student of.
One of the graduands is a Barbadian national
The graduation programme included addresses by Prime Minister Samuel Hinds, Chairman of the AWHWAES Captain Ronald Reece and Executive Manager Mrs. Nalini Chanderban.
Those who attended included the graduands, other students now in the early sategs of their training, friends and relatives, Staffers of the school, senior aviation officials and other special invitees including members of the Diplomatic Corps and Parliamentarians .
Prime Minister Samuel Hinds urged the graduands to realise that countries are built by people and to understand that it was their duty to build Guyana to beyond the point where his generation, the older generation has taken it.
He said: “ Ensure that you have a proper attitude , the proper understanding of your country , its position; where it is at the moment and the challenges that you have to take up to make to advance this country .”
He urged that even if they chose to leave they would continue to operate wherever they go in a way that brings good reputation to Guyana.
Captain Ronald Reece said that an educated workforce is a tremendous asset to any country and particularly a developing country like Guyana.
He urged the graduands to remain at home and help to develop the local aviation industry .
He also called for an acceleration of efforts by all stakeholders including Government to modernise the sector to reach the standards of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO).
Executive Manager of the AWHWAES Mrs. Nalini Chanderban s aid that the school is at the moment the only fully licensed aeronautical engineering school in CARICOM central and northern south America.
She disclosed that next year the school will introduce training for the B2 licence which includes jet training since the larger world market includes big jets.
“This is no ordinary school, “ she said, adding that the school can rightfully boast to being the premier aircraft maintenance organisation in the region.
Of the twenty graduands seven were sponsored : five by Leeward Islands Air Transport ( LIAT) airlines , one by the Guyana Defence Force and one by the Caribbean Aviation Maintenance Services (CAMS) Limited based at Ogle. .