I got a place with LE and invite to assessment for TUI (since pulled out after accepting LE). For context, I have several hours non-powered flying, 12 hours towards PPL, and career in an aviation profession with instructing experience. I got my powered hours through a scholarship. I had reached the final stage of other similar scholarships in the past.
I think with all these kind of things, they are going to want to recruit from a mix of backgrounds and experience, and there is always an element of luck involved. So a big part of it is figuring out how to make yourself stand out, and really get across your qualities, drive, and personality. I did prepare meticulously for each element, and I had learned and improved substantially after going through previous assessment processes.
Things I did / general unsolicited advice:
- get flying experience, even better if it’s through a small scholarship e.g. from the Air League, airpilots.org, Launchpoint, BWPA, ACS Flight Training. There is help out there, it can just be hard to find. I think gaining scholarships like these will help you stand out too.
- join a flying or air sports club/organisation, this is also good for making connections and finding other opportunities.
- more generally, any hobby that helps you demonstrate pilot related skills, or just anything you feel you could achieve highly in. The more skill/responsibility/challenge involved the better.
- volunteer e.g. STEM, the Air League, Air Cadets (good option if you can’t afford to fly right now too)
- study/work in an aviation related profession (this also doubles as a solid backup plan and shows your commitment)
- prepare for any application or assessment with huge attention to detail - ask someone to review your CV, do free practice tests, rehearse in front of a camera, wear a suit! Use context-action-result when providing evidence.
It’s imperative to know all about the sponsoring company, about the industry and training, also where you see yourself and why. I think it’s important to be authentic and individual with the answers, and to be confident without being over confident...
There are lots of free online resources for aptitude tests, pilot competency requirements, airline interview prep, group assessments etc that can be taken advantage of. Some want to charge you, I’d avoid these.
There is also a fully funded scholarship by Aviation South West which seems to have been hardly publicised. The closing date I believe is end of May. Only open to U26 and less than 5 hours (don’t get me started) but lots of people may be eligible for it. Optimistic that more will come out in the near future.