Just my opinion but...
Rarely do I feel the need to air my opinion (and frankly that of a great many individuals...from SFT) in such a vociferous manner. I refer to the state of apparent total lack of regulation within the flight training industry with specific reference to the vulnerability of the student pilot (customer).
Yet another Flight Training Organisation (FTO) has closed due to financial troubles (SFT Aviation Limited). The students, who have paid vast sums of money (life savings, mortgages, loans etc), stand to lose everything. Notwithstanding their losses they also face the impossible task of having to find similarly sizeable funds to pay for the completion of their training with another FTO.
I personally have lost £3500 and unable to complete the final phase of training required to meet airline entry requirements, until I find some more funds.MCC
As a community we student pilots feel very bitter at the way the Professional Pilot Training Industry is regulated. How is a training provider allowed to continue operating when it is in serious financial trouble. Why should professional student pilots not be afforded the same benefits and privileges as those students training for other professional qualifications at colleges and universities? Namely the right to complete the training which they have already paid for.
The system of training pilots for a career in commercial aviation; which currently exists in this supposedly training friendly and pro-actively educationally progressive New Labour governed administration is diabolical. Not only do the vast majority of student pilots have to fund their own training costs (typically £40,000 - £50,000) but the training they receive is not eligible for tax relief. On top of that, there is absolutely no financial assistance afforded by the government for what is essentially a qualification of at least equal standing to a University Degree…WHY?
It seems that the government has chosen to regard the Professional Airline Transport Pilot qualification as something akin to an HGV licence. Surely the government should be encouraging people to take up flying as a professional vocation especially considering the predicted growth rate expected over the next 20 years.
A further hitch is that many professional training providers operate with very little margin, so if they don’t have the students coming through the system they face a very bleak short term future, and inevitable long term demise. "Administration" and "liquidation" are terms often heard in the pilot training industry, and spell nightmarish fears for those who are already ‘in the system’. Individuals who would stand to lose everything if their training provider went into receivership.
WHY are there no safeguards provided by the government for the training establishments and more importantly for the students who are literally risking everything to provide an industry with the required expertise.
WHY is it that someone can study/train to be a nurse, engineer, translator, accountant etc at university or college without the fear of losing £40,000 pounds due to a glitch in the economy.
Neither do they face the prospect of having to pay for another course should they be unfortunate enough not to have completed their training by the time the cash strapped training provider finally calls in the administrators.
Unlike those of us who train for a career as an Airline Transport Pilot.
Does the government consider the professional pilot training industry neither large nor important enough to regulate effectively.
WHY did the government decide to withdraw the NVQ/VTR scheme for the professional pilot qualification. Many student pilots took the opportunity to take advantage of the NVQ/VTR scheme while it still existed; however that now turns out to be to our peril and has resulted not in a saving but an additional expense.
To qualify for NVQ/VTR one had to have paid the total cost of the course fees up front by 31st August 2000 in order to benefit from the tax relief. Unfortunately a number of student pilots who "took advantage " of this are now facing enormous additional expense as their training providers have ceased trading and they are having to pay for training AGAIN elsewhere. Had NVQ/VTR not been abolished, many of these students would not be facing the problems of having to find new extra funds to complete the training which they had already paid for in full, as they would have been able to pay ‘piecemeal’ for the training as they received it, while still benefiting from the tax relief scheme.
Clearly something needs to be done in order to prevent other FTO’s succumbing to the same fate as SFT, and to safeguard the students investment in their training. I strongly believe the responsibility for formulating and implementing more effective regulation with specific reference to the points raised above lies squarely with the government.
What hope is there of achieving the predicted growth in the aviation industry if we can’t even manage the training organisations to provide the drivers for the planes.
I called Merridian Television in a bid to raise awareness of the situation in which many student pilots now find themselves; and the potential for many more to fall victim to similar circumstances in the future.
This issue needs to be fully addressed in the hope that the pilot training system be drastically reformed to prevent such catastrophic outcomes in the future.
This letter was sent to a MP, and numerous newspapers. Will post all correspondence here, as long as I don't infringe any rights.