Pilot Apprentice - Jet 2
 

https://krb-sjobs.brassring.com/TGWe..._5476&GQId=344

Jet2.com is delighted to announce the creation of three exciting opportunities for Pilot Apprentices to join our Team. Working in Flight Operations, the Apprentice Pilot programme will last 18 months and consist of a winter season and two summer seasons across our UK Bases.

During the summer season the Pilot Apprentice will be heavily involved in the preparation of pre-flight paperwork (Operational Flight Plans, NOTAM’s and Weather), supporting the Crewing and Rostering Teams and updating aircraft documentation. The winter season will see you based at Leeds Bradford International Airport where you will undertake a planned schedule geared towards giving you maximum exposure to the full range of Jet2.com business areas. This will include Finance, Human Resources, Jet2holidays and Engineering. In addition you will attend a range of management development modules.

At the end of the 18 month Apprenticeship Jet2.com will provide you with a fully bonded Type Rating. On completion of this you will enter the world of commercial aviation as a First Officer with Jet2.com.

Successful candidates will hold a UK Frozen ATPL and Medical as well as JOC, MCC and driving licence. You will have excellent verbal and written communication skills and experience of office IT systems. In addition we require you to be flexible as we may require you to be based from any of our UK bases.

In return, we offer an excellent salary and benefits package with fantastic opportunities for progression in a growing business. As well as being part of a vibrant company, our colleagues can also benefit from our Staff Travel Scheme.

This is a great opportunity to be part of an exciting forward thinking business - help us to send the North on Holiday with Jet2.com and Jet2holidays.

A fantastic opportunity. Good luck to all who apply. This is a great way to earn your first FO job whilst gaining invaluable knowledge and experience on the way.

Sounds like a great opportunity for somebody. I think this is in response to a government scheme to increase apprenticeships, lets hope other airlines follow suit! Unfortunately if I've understood it correctly you need a fATPL to apply, which won't help anyone that is struggling to fund initial flight training. I wonder if they'll put a max hours requirement on it (other than the 1500 defined by frozen ATPL), or if they'd be happy for instructors, low-hour turboprop pilots etc to apply.

Sounds like an absolutely fantastic opportunity, does anyone have any idea when the closing date is?

Sounds good. Though one season might have been enough.

Any ideas about the salary? Will Jet2 pay for license and medical during those 18 months? :confused: What are the conditions of the bond?

It says a lot for todays 'wannabes' that this represents supposedly a 'great opportunity'. It is not a great opportunity, it's a very poor opportunity. The only plus is that you don't have to pay for a type rating. The more bright eyed wannabes keep accepting these deals, the more you are hurting yourselves and your future careers.

If you have a CPL/IR, you are a qualified pilot. You have already demonstrated your ability to fly, you should not be required to be an apprentice for 18 months whilst losing currency and flying practice.

When I qualified (not that long ago, six years to be precise) we were just starting to see the dawn of this pay for training epidemic. I followed what would have been considered the traditional 'apprentice' route. I started off on a small twin turboprop flying 19 PAX. I then got my 'lucky break' and got offered a job on an Airbus if I paid for the rating. Like an idiot I did exactly that and two weeks after my base check, the airline went out of business. I consider myself very lucky to have found work on an ERJ-145 for a very big airline in my wife's home country.

You are pilots. You may be low houred, unemployed pilots, but you are qualified to fly commercial aircraft, the idea of making you work in an office for 18 months whilst losing your flying skills just shows how backwards this industry is becoming. Only a year ago you would have been able to go straight into this company as a fully fledged FO if you were one of the very lucky minority that got hired.

I disagree. I think this is a good opportunity and a very sensible way for a young person with no other qualifications apart from a CPL/IR to get some working experience which would be of great benefit to a career as a pilot.

The notion that someone who completes zero to hero flight training is a 'pilot' who has merely not had the opportunity to demonstrate they can fly and deserves more than to be an apprentice is nonsense.

Far too many people hold CPL/IRs and think this entitles them to something. Rubbish. Most people of average intelligence can achieve that much. Have some humility. This Jet2 job is a far more 'honest' entry into the profession than wearing one stripe at OAA and then expecting a shiny jet job, turbo prop or Embraer job.

Geez. Pilots are such an arrogant bunch. So many of the people I meet on the flightdeck wouldn't be able to cope with the training for many lesser paid professions let alone hold down a real job.


Edited to apologise for aiming that rant at the previous poster. No offence intended.

EMB145-LR
 

You mention "the lucky break" and "very lucky minority" in your post. As you'll know in aviation, securing the first job is about timing, networking and (making your own) luck.

Just because you have a frozen ATPL it doesn't guarantee you any commercial flying job let alone an FO position with an airline. As you know there are far more pilots (not just low-houred wannabes) than jobs. The traditional route of instructing followed by air taxi, etc is as hard to break into or over-subscribed.

I receive a plethora of CVs daily from integrated pilots with 200 hours to experienced, type rated, operators with thousands of hours. I have peers that trained before, with and after me that are still looking for their first break and are employed outside of aviation.

I took the plunge and accepted a similar role to this and, after 12 months, now sit in the RHS of a fantastic airliner. Along the way I have acquired knowledge and experience a low-houred direct entrant wouldn't be exposed to. This has helped me (and my crew) in line flying.

A job like this is a great opportunity to break into the business. Jet 2 may offer their apprentices the opportunity to keep current in the sim or by using an FTO. They may also contribute to medical and IR renewals. I don't know as I don't work for them. Whatever is on offer the role is a pathway to an FO job.

If you pass this up in 18 months you could still be in a non-airline job wishing you'd applied. For three lucky (your words) individuals they will be starting in their chosen career as an airline pilot. They will have been prepared to try something other than self-fund to get a step on the ladder. Don't knock them for trying - there aren't many other avenues open.

Yay or nay
 

It is a difficult one really, I would label it as a decent opportunity and good alternative to paying for the rating, although 18 months does seem like alot a year would suffice surely. Having worked as a flight dispatcher I think getting that exposure is a good way to give future FO's the ground experience to actually appreciate the people you are going to spend your career alongside - cabin crew/gnd handlers/engineers.

However, the simple fact is that those hired last year didn't have to do this and I would guess you only start working off your bond once it has been 'paid' i.e it dosent include the 18 months you just spent on the ground.

In that context its a **** deal but still unfortunately probably the best thing to come along in awhile, clever stuff from Jet2 really

Please don't get me wrong, I don't think that the experience gained in another area of aviation won't benefit the pilot. I worked in operations, HR and as cabin crew prior to starting my commercial training. That experience was invaluable. I just think that this represents another changing of the goal posts for wannabes. While I accept that the majority are in their 20s, often recent high school or university leavers, many new entrants are older, more experienced and for them this 18 month secondment is just a further delay in their ever diminishing careers.

This sort of thing works very well with cadet schemes such as those offered by West Atlantic. It gives a good foundation and basis to understand this industry. However, I would argue that it should come prior or during flight training, not at that vital time when you have just finished and your new skill set diminishes very quickly.

Read the small print of your contract very carefully. Of course, that is if there is any written contract. If this is all word of mouth and a 'gentlemans' agreement, then they have a history of changing their minds when it suits them.

Wasn't this tarted as part of a government scheme to help those finance pilot training? With the requirements set at f-atpl: what's the point?

Would you rather be employed, with massive debts, while you wait for a flying job or would you rather be unemployed while you wait?

There is no point if one cannot fund the CPL/IR in the first place.

Sorry CA, not directed at you but a general question and you do have a point.

Basically, you pay 100k to start an 18 month apprenticeship in a completely different discipline, on an 'apprenticeship' wage presumably. Government apprenticeship to help fund the looming shortage of pilots!? What utter utter tosh! This is a joke. Bring back the path up through FI/charter/cargo/regionals etc.

So Jet2 get money from the tax payer for their "Apprentice" pilot. This "Apprentice" must already be a fully qualified pilot. The apprenticeship will consist of no flying training or flying experience whatsoever. So after 18 months you are no more 'qualified' to start the type rating as you would be on day 1.

Don't get me wrong, 18 months in OPs will make you a better Pilot, providing you with an understanding of airline ops and more importantly an appreciation for the people in other roles and what they do. But you are NOT a "pilot Apprentice".

This is simply misleading the government into using tax payers money to pay for employees in administration roles, which in my opinion is immoral.

edit:
.....and I think the grants from the government are partly based on the age of your apprentice (older=less grant). So I woundn't be surprised if it's unofficially limited to those who will be under the age of 24 at the time of starting their Type Rating so that the company can get the grant money.....which is after all why the company is doing it under the governments "apprentice" label.

I don't believe this has anyting to do with the Government-backed Pilot Apprenticeship scheme announced last year. That is yet to come. As far as I'm aware, the Pilot Apprenticeship is still being worked on with the next announcement due end of March.

Let's hope so then. Unusual for Jet2 to bring out a 'Pilot Apprentice' programme a month before supposedly starting the government backed scheme:

http://www.fairplane.org.uk/files/20...N-Nov-2012.pdf

I didn't quite understand this... Is this "pilot apprentice" for people that do not have ATPL Theory/CPL/IR MCC i.e a frozen ATPL ?

I don't know whatever happened to flight planners who were experienced at planning and pilots who flew the aircraft. This just seems a way to save money on employing the proper people to do the job right first time. If I was at Jet2 I would like to think that when I picked up the phone and called Ops that it would be answered by someone who was an expert at their job and not someone pushing buttons who will more than likely tell me "but that is what the computer is telling me".

From the outside, but as a pilot of 13 years and a current Captain:

This seems fair enough to me.

If you've got a FATPL, can't find a job, are in debt and prepared to wait.

It reminds me of the Air Atlantique "FUGLY" sponsorship deal slightly.

Stop moaning, go learn the ropes and enjoy your B737 course in 18 months.

But, then again, I guess 18 months is too long to wait for our 200 hour heroes of today. They'd rather pay today, get shafted tomorrow.:ugh::ugh::ugh:

NR,

I have no real issue with the concept; but it's not an apprenticeship if you're already qualified, and have spent fortunes to be in that position.
Air Atlantique actually sponsored you through your CPL/IR - and still do!

Contact Approach,

Why would you be qualified to be an airline Ops professional, or go through the management training that Jet2 are offering on the basis of holding a FATPL?

You may hold the very basic legal requirement to seek employment as a First Officer, but most FATPL holders wouldn't know how to work a shift in Ops or another airline department.

I see this as a good opportunity to get a good reputation early on in a career and then be paid to fly an aeroplane - all this in an economy and business that has tanked.

NR,

You wouldn't be qualified, and that is my point. It is not an apprenticeship if you need already be qualified. I can't apply for this because I haven't got the professional qualifications necessary to apply (f-atpl), and there is no scheme in place to enable me to access funding to gain such qualifications:

Apprenticeship - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

How is this a Pilot apprenticeship if the Pilot-training bit has already been achieved prior, and as such the very skills/training the apprenticeship offers has little to do with the profession it so states?

If it is a Pilot apprenticeship then the requirements should stand at academics, aptitude and motivation, surely?
The day-to-day work may still be the same - ops/planning/admin etc - with flight training incorporated; the goal being a route into the RHS after X months/years. Hence, a Pilot Apprenticeship.

I ask again: what is the point?

The "pilot apprentice" position at Jet2 is not new and isn't associated with the government apprentice scheme.

Personally I think paid work in airline ops and a free type rating and job out of it is far better than being unemployed and paying for your own TR in hope of something coming along. :ok:

Good luck to those that apply.

First off, the ticket to commercial flying does not cost £100k. I repeat does not. If IR and MCC bit held back I claim it can be done for about £20-25k, £15k for IR and £2k for MCC. At least four years ago when I went through the process. MCC can be bypassed if 500 hours done with air taxi people. CAA will issue you with MCC thereupon.

The Jet2 Apprentice Scheme is worth considering for everyone with no light in sight. For everyone else it's not.

Everything a pilot really needs to know is, well, surprise, surprise, occurring in the air. Please don't tell me you'll have to work 18 month alongside groundcrew to understand their responsibilities. I value and honor their work but sorry I, as a pilot, need to fly as much as possible to become a safe operator.

In my book, this scheme is a brilliant idea to find highly motivated, at best intelligent to boot, people, to fill the positions of dispatcher, etc. No more, no less.

Best thing to do is, still, get ticket cheaply and hold cash back for first few years until your career has become self-sustained.

Then keep your logbook rolling, learn, and wait for your opportunity with Jet2 to arise: as direct entry pilot.

This career requires a huge deal of what many of today's generation no longer seem to possess: patience.

But you are not "qualified" yet to fly a 737 if you do not hold the type-rating!

To those others who are saying "I am a pilot - I do not need to work on the ground" - get a life - and some humility! This is a chance to eventually get a flying job with a major airline - WITH A FREE TYPE-RATING!!! Very few of these exist in Europe today.

To rephrase on my previous comment - how mant fATPL holders have this magic "light in sight" these days?

So a free type-rating at the end is not worth the wait then?:ugh:

As somebody already pointed out, read the contract VERY carefully before you sign it!

GL,

Chillax.

There's a whole bunch of guys out there already flying, i.e. FIs, taxi, tugging, etc. In my book they're already flying and waiting for next door to open. Yes, it might be a free 73 rating but before grounding themselves for 18 months in the current climate and giving up their flying jobs, pay or no pay, I'm sure most will think veeeery hard.

Who says that Jet2 will be true to their word? From what I hear and read about the airline it must be a great place to be so I'm sure they most likely will. However, I'd be giving up control of my own fate and I don't like it. Fall out with a coworker and two weeks before completion of the program you're told nay, not you. Sorry, carrot springs to mind... It's happened before. The biz is throat-cutting.

As much as I myself would love to join this airline I am not prepared to ground myself for 18 months.

People like CTC grads, who I understand are drowning at the hundreds in the chilly CTC pool at this point in time, will see this as a welcome opportunity to avoid Flexiscrew. And I don't blame them.

As far as I'm concerned, Jet2 have in the past, and I'd hope are going to in the future, hire the occasional TP guy or gal. And it's my understanding with that company that depending on your level of experience you will be also given a rating with a bond. No doubt about it it won't be easy to secure one of those places, as they will be few and far between.

I myself am employed already on a pretty sweet deal I find. It's not 73 yet but a lot of fun, good pay and great experience. Our guys fly close to max flight hours every year, why would I be grounding myself for 18 months?

And lastly, don't you worry about me, I have done my fair share of several years of hard, physical labor to never forget where my place is.

To correct one figure in my previous post though: indeed rates for flight training in the UK have gone up. Having redone the math I'd claim one can complete training towards the JAR CPL for £25k though, which would allow the holder to do VFR work, i.e. aerial photography, dropping jumpers, etc.

If the salary for the first 18 months is decent I can't see why this wouldn't be a good opportunity apart from not being in regular flying practice straight away. But it is dependent on salary, if your on an a apprentice like salary for 18 months it could be as little as 16-18K a year.

16-18k a year is a lot more than 0k a year, especially with a saving of a 30k type rating at the end of it.

GL,

You may not be qualified to fly the 737, but you are qualified to seek employment as a professional pilot.
I agree, it gives good exposure to the workings of the industry, but it should not require a f-atpl to apply - perhaps PPL and atpl's at the very most.

Perhaps instead of being called a 'pilot apprenticeship' it should instead be called something along the lines of 'jet airline pilot' apprentice...?!

Seems to more accurately reflect the fact that you need to already be a qualified pilot to apply, but this will teach you to pilot a jet airliner?

Have to say I just laughed at that statement from the BBC!

Lets be honest, this is a load of rubbish. It is certainly not an apprenticeship in any way shape or form.

If you already have an fATPL then you do not need any of this 'experience of ops' blah blah thats what line training and captains are for - they teach you the ways, take the good leave the bad.

When was the last time you flew with a Captain who you thought was great, someone who made good decisions and looked after the crew? Had he or she had a 'pilot apprenticeship'?

Granted the experience will be useful to some degree, if not just to gain exposure and a consideration for what goes on outside of the FD. But the requirements are completely absurd, and it is not an apprenticeship.
Why can't this be open to those who wish to gain a f-atpl and subsequently a position as an FO with Jet2?? Perhaps then, a 'pilot apprenticeship' would seem more fitting.
It should not be aimed at those already qualified; what is the point?

CA

Nobody seems to be able to answer the question as to what the point is...

Simples: my impression is from reading aviation job sites there's a constant shortage of competent ops staff, i.e. dispatcher. I frequently see ads with companies looking. I could imagine that job quite hectic at times but not necessarily well paid so hard to attract well-educated folk doing a promising, reliable job. So to fill that position with a kid holding a fATPL, desperate and willing enough to do just about anything while receiving only little pay, and not having to worry to recruit someone else for 18 month, only to give him/her an in-house rating at the end of it, which will be, let's face it, of little expense to the company, is a pretty smart move.

Making up the rules as they go along...
 

To be honest,I agree with Contact approach.Also, I find disheartening that someone who had to start from somewhere too,would call us "200hr heroes of today".
First,this is not an apprenticeship in any way.And 'CA',I think the point is written between the lines,they need people to cover ops jobs and whoever accepts this opportunity will be working to the bones,earning very little and doing whatever he/she is told to,because they don't want to miss the opportunity of a B737 type rating.How much does a fully qualified ops worker earn and how much does apprenticeships pays?And the people who comes up with this "fantastic" ideas are the hypocritical oldies who make up the rules as they go along,its a self full-filing prophecy.I am told that my 250hrs aren't good enough to join the likes of Easyjet for example,but yet,they hire MPL's who only touch an aircraft for the total of 85hrs,the remaining is simulator all the way,so apparently they are "better" prepared individuals...please don't tell me that this are management driven decisions as I am pretty sure the Captains of the industry were involved in this farce.Also,I wont Join BA as I didn't go to OAA even tho I have met many of their cadets who knew absolute nothing,they claim their training is the 'bees-kness'.And this Jet2 "opportunity" rules me out as I feel that I have been through this experience,I have a degree,work experience in the industry etc.,probably better suited for a youngster.
I see it as,they are moving the goalposts and because the country is in such a S:mad: situation,we just have to suck it up and accept it....!that's plain wrong!I wish good luck to everyone who applies tho.I have decided to leave the UK,as I am tired of being treated as second class citizen after working so hard to obtain my licences,the very few opportunities are going to the ones who have the ability to pay and not to the resilient ones.Funny that I will be flying in the most unlikely of places,Africa...200hr hero need to start form somewhere right?:E