Young Enthusiasts & Work Experience

[Milton1995]

Hi, as you may see from my profile im curently 15 years of age and dead set on a career in aviation, with aspirations to become a training captain for one of the UK's top airlines. Im a member of the RAF cadets, a member of my local gliding club, surrey hills, fly with redair occasionaly out of redhill and obviously an avid user of flight simulator:P. From a very young age i have always dreamt of being a pilot and therefore with that passion i have spent a huge amount of my time researching and understanding multiple aspects of flight and i feel i have a great depth of understanding of flight and also the flying skills to become one of the best on the airlines fleet. So i have bigged myself up now, but what am i really asking ? I have tried multiple airlines for work experience and have only had luck with flybe, but have also managed to secure a few flying hours with a BA captain on their short haul service. I understand the competiton for this job and would greatly appreciate ANY help or advice i can get, so if you have any, please dont hold back. Thankyou In Advance, Mark.

[malagamike]

hi
this is my 21st year working i aviation and i have never come accross any airline who offers work experience. (i appreciate that i could be wrong and have made this comment based purely on my experience in my airport).
i would say that due to security measure and the lack of flight deck visits etc it would be hard to get any flying experience with most airlines.
the only thing i can suggest is that you continue to contact all uk airlines and see if they run any type of scheme which offers the sort of experience that you are looking for.
the best of luck.

[Mr Angry from Purley]

Mark
The Airline I work for has about 3-4 work experience guys/girls in every year. Most of them are friends or kids from Staff that work for us. Most are proper work experience as part of their school curiculum (spelling?)
There is no set agenda they go round as many departments and managers / staff as possible. Some will do nothing with them, some will giving them boring filing and some will treat them nicely and thoroughly explain their jobs.
We also arrange an aircraft visit etc. Unfortunately flights are a no-no these days with the security issue's. This is only work a week though - is my understanding of work experience what you're looking for?

If your asking about the best way to get a job i can only offer you what i think

Your long term aspirations is to become a Pilot - best to get into a job where you deal with Pilots - handling agent, Crewing, Operations, Flight Planning etc. Once you decide which area you fancy write to the Handling Manager / Crewing Manager / Operations Manager of as many airlines as you can. Keep an eye out on places such as aviationjobsearch or type in Operations Officer jobs into Google and apply for everything when your 16 (my view is letters are best as if by internet you'll get the standard nfi reply from HR - TIP - Ring the airline and find out the Manager's name). You might have to wait till your 18 so if your not into further education try and get a job at the airport landside. I for one have never had an off spec letter from someone with no experience

Anyway that's my good deed of the day i hope it helps you.
(Mr Angry of Purley was born in Bletchingley so i know Redhill very well) :\

[Frogga]

Try to get work experience with the RAF, yes they do it on most bases, or even try to get it at Redhill Airfield. Most smaller airfields allow work experience, to gain a knowledge of airfield happenings, I did it 11 years ago now, and have worked in aviation ever since.