Non Airline Apprenticeships

[banditb6]

Hello I was wondering as I never seem to hear of any, if local maintenance organisations such as local flying club maintencance hangar offer apprenticeships, the only ones I see advertised are for the airlines, is this just because they have more money to advertise or are there not many fresh faces going in GA engineering?

[munster]

I would guess your best option would be to get knocking on doors and see what's out there. This year many airlines took apprentices on, Easyjet, thomson, Virgin, Monarch and Bristow that i know of. My son has just started his with one of the above after being offered two apprenticships.
Do your research and you'll hopefully find what you want!

Cheers

[Beech_Boy]

You just have to look around, we have just taken on 2 apprentices at our organisation in the biz jet market. Where ate you located banditb6?

[banditb6]

Im located In the UK (East Midlands) now I did apply for a few of the Airlines and had assesments also.

[wigglyamp]

we've just taken on 3 apprentices in a GA business in the southeast as we can't find enough qualified staff. We still want more experienced fitters but they just don't seem to be available so are training our own. We've also started to sponsor a fitter though his B1 as we can't find suitable licensed staff so are looking to the long-term growth by paying for training.

[Pilotage]

Unlikely to be so local, but also look at the manufacturers and research organisations. Westlands, BAeS, Qinetiq, and most universities all offer apprenticeships.

P

[banditb6]

wigglyamp do you mind me asking, when you say you are sponsoring a fitter through the B1 does this mean you are paying for the study modules from somewhere like ICAT and the exams also? I apologise for being so direct its just this is what I would like to achieve and like to think that it is possible to gain through GA business, I have never seen jobs advertised for GA mechanics/Engineers and so have no idea how it works , I am going to try and have a chat with a couple of the local maintenance shops to find out some more, thanks

[YOUNGBUCK]

Hi Bandit,

There is a flying club at EMA called Donnair flying club (opposite BMI Hangar), also there are another couple of little hangars around the same part of the airport maintaining small aircraft.

Try popping down there and talking to some people, arrange some work experience maybe.

With the closure of BMI there are not too many jobs around them parts at the moment with the bigger airlines. However, Flybe will be opening a line station there in the near future so maybe they may take on apprentice/s if the station is big enough.

Most people in aviation have to travel to get into the industry.

BTW G.A is great way getting into the industry and you learn alot regarding aircraft, get onto the jets as soon as your ready tho for the $$

[banditb6]

Cheers for that YOUNGBUCK, I have popped into Donair and had a chat but the Engineer wasn't in with it being a weekend, unfortunatley I work during the week so cant go down but have passed on my CV and explained my situation to them so we will see, do you know what the other small GA companies are other than RVL based at East Midlands? Can't see any from google maps or trying to search Google either. The BMI hangar will be a large one to be sitting empty!

[YOUNGBUCK]

If i remember, opposite the Donair place (not the BMI side) , There is a small place where a air ambulance is kept and a few little planes

Maintenance companies which you may get some work experience at EMA include DHL Aviation, Thomson, Thomas Cook, Jet2, Apple Aviation, Atlantic Airlines Cargo (maybe), BCT. However I know these companies will not offer you a maintenance job in your situation (sorry to let the truth out, if you did not this already)

Contact the training departments. I think Thomsons' is based at Luton, DHL @ EMA, Jet2 @ leeds bradford as I think Apple maybe, Thomas Cook is based at Manchester. Hope this makes contacting the relevant places easier.

Yeah I imagine there will be a lot of people around that part of the world out of work from BMI so Jobs even harder to come by due to the abundance of spare people.

Have you considered Rolls-Royce Derby, that isnt too far from EMA

For the meantime keep practicing your hand-skills and tool-work on anything you can. It always helps if you can use a spanner properly when you get opportunity somewhere.

Keep trying, Perseverance is key, If you want it you will get it... eventually. Try not to let people convince you to pay to go on some course that wont get you any closer to a job. I know a few people who done a HNC or National Diploma which gave them more info to finding apprenticeships.

All The best