Article from BTNews 14 OCTOBER 2019
BBGA push for apprenticeships
A successful pathway to a world of future aviation opportunities lies in a revitalisation of apprenticeships, a newly released manifesto from the British Business and General Aviation Association (BBGA) highlighted last week.
The association was kick-starting a campaign to encourage science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) for the new generation, calling on government and the private sector to come together on the project.
The BBGA said the objective would be to create more successful initiatives such as that pioneered by Stansted Airport College (below), which has just enrolled 429 full-time trainees and 52 apprentices in its second year.
Representing nearly 200 UK business and general aviation companies, BBGA said at a special Tomorrow’s Workforce event its first priority was to align with Aviation Strategy 2050 and quantify what the UK workforce needs over the next 30 years.
With creation of aviation services apprenticeships as the goal, the BBGA is also seeking development of all streams including flight operations, ground operations and airworthiness, given business aviation per se does not feature in syllabuses.
“The urgent requirement for more commercial pilots is well known, but other roles in less recognised ‘aviation services’ – aircraft maintenance, ATC, ground and flight operations – are deteriorating as the UK faces a demographic cliff edge as babyboomers retire,” the association warned.
www.stanstedairportcollege.ac.uk
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