The University of South Wales (USW), one of the UK's leading educational institutions, has signed an agreement with the UAE-based Gulf Aviation Academy (GAA) to launch courses in aerospace education, engineering and training.

, wholly-owned by the Government of Dubai, for the establishment an advanced aerospace engineering education capability at Dubai South.

The agreement is a key step towards USW’s development of a specialist international provision for aircraft maintenance and aeronautical engineering education at the global aviation hub in Dubai South, on course to welcome its first students in 2018, remarked Prof Julie Lydon, the vice chancellor and chief executive of USW after signing the deal with Captain Dhaffer Al Abbasi, the chief executive of GAA in the presence of the British Ambassador to the UAE and the Welsh Government Cabinet Secretary Lesley Griffiths AM.

"This is an important step in developing the long term relationship between the USW, one of Britain’s major higher education institutions, and Gulf Aviation Academy, a key player in the region’s aerospace capability," sstated Lydon.  

"Drawing on our experience with some of the world’s leading aerospace engineering companies, we look forward to a future of successful cooperation and mutual value with the GAA," he added.

Captain Al Abbasi described the MoU as the first step towards investing in further developing the type of training and academic degrees offered in GAA and those offered in USW that are related to aviation.

"With only a 40 minutes flight, both GAA and USW will be able to provide value-added programs that can complement each other and better serve the requirements in the market," stated Al Abbasi.

Launched in 2010, GAA earlier only catered to its local market requirements. However the company now offers over 50 training courses that are not aviation-related, to customers form the Mena region, Asia, Europe and South America.-TradeArabia News Service