Originally Posted by
Gordomac
Simple maths really. Hamble limited age range was ( Iseem to remember) 18-24. If you just increase range, you increase the potential market. Selection team now have to look at a wider range. No poke at discrimination chaps. Gosh. Dare we say anything these days ?
I served on Selection Boards. One was a "sponsored scheme". We took on the last stage of approved training. CPL/IR/Perf A. With a CPL complete, we sponsored Twin rating, I/R. Then full B737 conversion, line training. Here's the thing. Only 5 places a year. The flying schools provided a huge number. It was heart breaking that we could not take on ALL applicants. Picking out five was a huge strain upon a sympathetic selection board. It became a competition and highly selective.
All that was hard enough. Widening the selection net by any means gives the selection team a increased challenge. Dead simple.
But, good luck to all. 60- 70 "BA Cadets" for the "Speedbird Acadamy"places that amount where otherwise no opportunity existed.. Can't see anything but good in that.
It seems you may be comparing apples to pears here. Yes the intake of applicants will be larger, I heard there were 23,000+ for the Speedbird academy, however the amount of automation in those early steps is huge, so less strain on the human team. The process ensures that those who meet the grade at each level progress, so a claim that x number of the most deserving (what does that really even mean?) will be missed is somewhat baseless, pass the tests and you progress. The numbers once human interaction begins are more than manageable and in no way a lesser method at talent identification than the ‘good ol’ days’ of Hamble.
All who make it through onto the course will be more than deserving, and as always, equally good candidates will be left disappointed and hopefully enthused to try again next year and at similar schemes. And well done to BA for investing far more than promo funds into running this.