Défense Conseil International Group (DCI), the reference operator of the French Ministry of Defense for the international transfer of French military know-how, recently announced the ISO 9001 certification of the Qatar Air Academy by BSI.
The Academy thus becomes the first military training center to be certified in the Middle East. This certification highlights the drive for performance, continuous improvement and “customer” satisfaction of DCI and General Salem Al Nabet, Commander of the Academy.
Founded in 2011, the Qatar Air Academy has established itself as a leading training center, with a total of 49 trainee pilots having completed training, that is 3 classes of helicopter pilots and one of aircraft pilots. Given this swift development, the need arose to assess the satisfaction of the operational squadrons that subsequently serve in the Qatari Air Force, to maintain training standards.
In addition, the Qatar Air Academy now employs 110 people from DCI, particularly instructors of 11 different nationalities. The processes introduced for the ISO 9001 certification improve dialogue and enhance flexibility and cross-working within teams.
“The Qatar Air Academy sets the example both for the Qatari armed forces, but also for all military training centers. We wanted a truly excellent Air Academy in terms of processes and customer satisfaction, like DCI, whose headquarters and training centers in France carry ISO 9001 certification,” said Jean-Michel Palagos, CEO of DCI.
This ISO 9001 certification is a label of recognition between international businesses and will have a long-term impact on the quality of services and training courses. Developing clear and stable processes helps to continuously improve courses, particularly via trainee assessment of learning methods and course content. Similarly, flight safety is guaranteed by thorough application of procedures.
Initiated by the ambition of General Salem Al Nabet to consolidate the Academy’s performance, ISO 9001 certification was earned in record time in less than a year, whereas it generally takes 18 to 24 months. His leadership served to marshal the entire Qatar Air Academy staff.
On this occasion, senior management received training in standardization and quality processes, along with 15 quality officers across the various departments and an in-house auditor. A team of five people, from the Qatar Air Academy and DCI Group, worked on drafting, documenting and checking the certification processes.
Reference operator of the Ministry of Defense for the international transfer of French Military know-how to friendly countries, DCI group has been operating across the entire defense and security spectrum for more than 40 years.
Holding the “French Armed Forces Training” label, DCI offers tailor-made services in the fields of consulting, training and technical assistance.
DCI group has its headquarters in Paris with several sites all over the national territory. It also has permanent offices abroad, in particular in the Middle East with Qatar, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, and in South East Asia with Malaysia and Singapore and more recently, in India and Brunei.
DCI is continuing to expand internationally with innovative, high added-value services through the development of new partnerships, particularly in Asia and Latin America.
The DCI group has 986 employees and reported sales of €227.5 million in 2015, which represents 35% growth over the past five years.
