The National
Aviation Programme.
One academic year, nine chapters and a graduation, the whole industry. Weekend sessions every two weeks in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, co-created with and authorised by the GCAA.
Dubai Saturdays
Every two weeks from Saturday 9 January 2027.
Abu Dhabi Sundays
The day after Dubai, from Sunday 10 January 2027. Same chapter, same standard.
Graduation
July 2027: Dubai and Abu Dhabi together, with stamped passports and certificates of completion.
Choose a chapter
Tap any station to see what the chapter covers.
Opening and the GCAA
How the UAE's aviation system is governed, and why the regulator co-created this programme.
All nine chapters
Open any chapter for its roles, entry requirements, simulation, pathways, skills and the professionals who deliver it.
How the UAE's aviation system is governed, and why the regulator co-created this programme.
Safety inspectors, licensing officers, airworthiness engineers, policy and standards specialists at the General Civil Aviation Authority and airport authorities.
Degrees in engineering, law, aviation management or safety science; operational experience is often the way in for inspectors.
Run a mock safety audit on a real scenario and decide what gets grounded.
University into the regulator's graduate intake, or from airline and airport operations into oversight roles.
Attention to detail, judgement under pressure, clear writing, systems thinking.
GCAA officers introduce the programme and the year ahead.
The calmest voices in aviation, and the airspace they manage.
Tower, approach and area controllers, flight data assistants, airspace designers, ATC instructors.
Aptitude-based selection, typically from 18, then licensed training with the air navigation service provider.
Sequence arrivals and departures on a live-style radar exercise.
Direct entry via aptitude testing, or engineering and operations routes into airspace and systems roles.
Spatial awareness, calm decision-making, precise radio communication, sustained concentration.
Controllers and instructors from a UAE control centre.
Where aircraft are built and kept flying: manufacturers, hangars, licences and the engineering trades.
Licensed aircraft engineers, technicians, avionics specialists, design and structures engineers, production, supply chain and quality specialists.
Approved maintenance training or an engineering degree; technician routes through apprenticeships, then a category licence built on supervised hours.
Follow a maintenance check card and sign off a task the way a licensed engineer would, then trace a component from the production line to the hangar.
Apprenticeship or approved training into a licence, or an engineering degree into design, production and planning.
Mechanical aptitude, precision, discipline with procedure, documentation, collaboration across disciplines.
Engineers and apprentices from a UAE MRO facility and an aircraft or engine manufacturer with a UAE presence.
How an airline makes money at 38,000 feet, and the careers behind every route.
Cabin crew, network planners, revenue managers, operations controllers, crew schedulers, customer experience leads.
From school-leaver cabin crew intakes to graduate schemes in commercial and operations.
Plan a new route and defend the numbers to an airline panel.
Cabin crew into leadership; business, data and engineering degrees into commercial and operations.
Commercial thinking, service, coordination, data literacy.
Airline professionals across commercial, operations and cabin services.
A city that never lands: how a hub actually runs.
Terminal and airside operations, airport duty managers, security, wildlife and airfield teams, planning and development.
Diplomas and degrees in aviation management, engineering or business; many roles start in frontline operations.
Run the operations control room through a disruption and get the airport moving again.
Frontline operations into management, or graduate entry into planning and development.
Coordination, calm under pressure, communication, problem-solving at scale.
Operations managers from a UAE airport.
The forty-five minutes that decide everything.
Turnaround coordinators, load controllers, ramp agents, baggage and cargo operations, ground equipment engineers.
School-leaver entry with on-the-job training; supervisory and load-control roles need certification.
Plan a full turnaround against the clock and balance the load sheet.
Ramp into supervision and station management; logistics degrees into cargo and planning.
Timekeeping, safety discipline, teamwork, physical and mental stamina.
Ground services teams from a UAE handling company.
Advanced air mobility, autonomy and sustainable aviation: the industry that will exist when you are thirty.
eVTOL and drone operations, autonomy and software engineers, sustainability and alternative fuels specialists, vertiport planners.
Engineering, computer science and environmental science degrees; new certification routes are being written now.
Plan a vertiport network for a UAE city and defend the safety case.
Traditional aviation roles are the foundation; the new sector recruits from them and from technology.
Adaptability, systems thinking, coding and data, sustainability literacy.
Teams from UAE advanced air mobility and sustainability programmes.
Where the sector goes next: the UAE's space ambitions and the roles being invented now.
Mission operations, spacecraft and satellite engineers, astronauts, space policy and science roles.
Engineering and science degrees; astronaut selection draws on aviation, medicine, science and the military.
Run a mission control exercise from launch through to orbit.
Aviation and engineering careers feed directly into the space sector; national programmes recruit UAE talent.
Analysis, resilience, precision, teamwork under pressure.
Professionals from the UAE space sector.
From first lesson to airline flight deck, and the honest economics of getting there.
Commercial and airline pilots, flight instructors, simulator instructors, cadet programme managers.
Medical fitness, maths and physics foundations, then an approved training programme or airline cadetship.
Fly an approach and landing in a simulator with an instructor beside you.
Integrated or modular training, sponsored airline cadetships, or military to civil transition.
Discipline, decision-making, communication, sustained learning.
Airline pilots and instructors from a UAE flight training organisation.
Dubai and Abu Dhabi together, with families in the room: stamped passports and certificates of completion.
How a session runs
Every chapter follows the same shape.
Nine stamps, one passport
Each chapter ends with a stamp in the student's Aviation Passport, earned by completing the session survey and scanning in. By graduation it holds nine. The programme is a structured pathway into the industry, not a licence, qualification or degree.
Three age bands, one journey
Discovery. What exists, who does it, what it feels like.
Direction. Subject choices, entry requirements and pathways.
Approach. Applications, licences, cadetships and first roles.
Each chapter is delivered in age-banded groups, so every student gets the version that meets them where they are.
Three online parent sessions
Parents and guardians do not sit in the student sessions. Three online sessions across the year help families support their student, the first following the first student session.
- Session one. The industry: roles, demand and how careers begin in the UAE.
- Session two. Pathways: university, apprenticeships, licences and cadetships.
- Session three. The plan: a family roadmap for the next five years.
Board the 2026/27 cohort
First session Saturday 9 January 2027 in Dubai, Sunday 10 January in Abu Dhabi.