ICATS eyes Cebu training school

Manila-based International Cabin Attendant Training School (ICATS) is eyeing to set up a training school in Cebu, citing the province’s abundant talent pool.

Princess Joy Garcia, ICATS president and chief executive officer, said Cebu has always been on the radar of ICATS’ expansion because of its swelling talent pool that can help fill the rising demand for flight attendants (FA) of local and international carriers.

She, however, declined to disclose specific details of the Cebu expansion but noted that the training initiatives for Cebu will be a continuing program.

For eight years, ICATS has been concentrating its business in Metro Manila. It was in 2012 when they reached out to Davao and just this year to Cebu. ICATS has produced 700 graduates from its training program.

“We came here because we’ve got a lot of inquiries from Cebuanos. This is also an opportunity for us to explore Cebu, know better its talents, and hopefully, create a linkage with the academe,” said Garcia.

ICATS launched this year a new program called “Connecting Flight Program”, an initiative that aims to bring the training school closer to the FA aspirants living in the provinces.

The training school aims to train at least 30 aspiring FAs from Cebu who will be enrolled in a 20-day training program from Oct. 23 to Nov. 11 at the Cebu Parklane International Hotel.

Garcia said there is a rising demand for FAs on the back of the continued expansion of local and international carriers.

She said the opening of more flights to Cebu from anywhere in the country and abroad present job opportunities to Filipinos who wanted to land jobs in the aviation industry.

“Foreign carriers, for instance, prefer to hire Filipino FAs because of our world-famous hospitality trait, which is already inherent in us. Filipinos also have excellent communication skills and are known for being hardworking,” said Garcia.

She added that graduating in a training school is an added edge because that would mean that they (aspiring FAs) already went through rigorous training and are already physically assessed.

The dream to travel and see the world, plus the lucrative payment are what attract Filipinos to become flight attendants. Garcia said that aside from the basic salary, FAs also get additional payment based on the number of flying hours. /