Originally Posted by
VariablePitchP
The beauty of the scheme is that it’s pretty wide open grades wise. Half a dozen GCSEs and you’re in.
It’s purely down to how competitive a candidate you are. Numbers vary depending on what you read but expect around 20,000 people to apply for at most 200 places. You’ve got a 1 in 100 chance. It’s down to you to level those odds by making yourself as attractive a candidate as possible.
My advice at this stage is slow down. That you aren’t aware of BA’s cadet scheme isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it does show that you’re right at the start of your journey in terms of fact finding.
You’re 18, you have absolutely no rush. You can afford to spend a year or two trying to get on these sponsored schemes whilst working out what you actually want to do in terms of school and jobs should you not get a space.
The other and more pressing question is do you have £100K sat in a bank account somewhere, or do your parents who have said you can spend it on a licence? If not, now is the time to be directing your research at other routes such as becoming a modular student.
It’ll be a long process of spending many hours researching, visiting schools, speaking to students. But it should be. You’re making a life changing decision to pursue this, and you’ll likely be all in financially. You need to make sure you’re making the right decision.
All this ^^^
In addition being 18 you don’t have sufficient education to be able to carry yourself financially should an aviation career be delayed by market forces or global events.
You also need a backup plan in case of medical disqualification.