easyJet MPL Program- what can I expect?
 

Hey everyone, was curious if there is anyone here who has done the easyJet MPL program.

I am looking to apply for next year and wanted to know what can I expect in terms of training and how it is structured (how many days a week etc) and what progression looks like after that.

TIA

The course use to be approx 6 to 8 months of ground school for the ATPL theory, assume this will now be done at Gatwick now ground school at Oxford has closed.
Core phase 1 approx 40 hours of SEP training
Core phase 2 approx 40 of SEP training doing IR training is a pseudo multi crew fashion (the Mil FIs may say it is similar to multi crew lead in), plus 5 hours of multi engine familiarisation. 3- 5 hours of UPRT as well.
Believe all the SEP phase is now done in Arizona, it use to be split between Arizona and CAE Oxford.

Basic Phase use to be in the fixed base CRJ 900 sim at Oxford, believe this will now be in a A320 sim at Gatwick (not sure)? Approx 40 to 60 hours of sim time (not 100% certain on the exact figures).
Advanced phase - essentially the A320 type rating.

EU based students on an EASA route can expect similar,except Madrid rather than Gatwick I believe is where the EASA ground school and sim training will take place.
Not sure what roster pattern they fly the students in these days but I would not be surprised if it is 5 days in a row with a day or two off in-between.

In normal circumstances they would try to push students through as quickly as possible, but I really have no idea what resource CAE have these days to achieve the targets the CAE-Easyjet contract asks for. Which on the last press release was 200 MPLS per year.

Hello! Ah, yes, just noticed it says it is full, I shall PM you my email address now. Thanks!

Hey portsharbourflyer!
Thank you very much for the detailed reply!

I got in contact with one of their CAE reps and I got an update.
The rep said they are accepting applications every month (including now) for 2024 course slots but not sure how long this will last.

I think this is pretty much bang on, the ATPL is marked as 950 hours total time and that is in London Gatwick, no mention of Oxford as a location.

The PDF doc I got does not mention anything about Arizona, the listed locations are these:

• CAE Brussels, CAE Madrid or CAE London Gatwick
• fairweather location (I am not sure if this means one of the above locations but I assume so)

I cannot find exactly how long the course takes but I think I read somewhere that it might take between 18 and 24 months, sadly cannot find it now.

Again, thanks for the info!

Hi Aero_Kris,

I believe the Fair weather location will refer to Phoenix, Arizona which has always been the SEP training base for CAE for both the Integrated phase 1 to 3 and MPL core phase 1 and 2.

Core-phase 1 and 2 were also in the past done at CAE Oxford, but the C182 fleet is no longer at Oxford.

Current ezy mpl student going through ground school.
Most of the stuff posted is correct.
I wasn't meant to start till around 7 months after I passed selection, got lucky and was offered a space that started just 5 weeks after selection in the end!

The fairweather location is Arizona, for groundschool you can choose from the three locations depending on what passport you have, it's also what country of license you'll come out with at the end.
(Assuming you're CAA as you're in Manchester)
Learning is a mix of at home from teams and in person at the training centre, works better than I had initially thought it would.
Theory is 9 months in 3 phases.

Then 28 weeks in Phoenix - Falcon Field KFFZ for MPL

Assuming you chose Gatwick, you're back to either Gatwick or we've been told Milan (tbc) for the A320 sim training as they've got more availability out there.
We've been told around 18 months from starting to actually starting with ezy.

Also happy to answer any questions you have :)

Sorry to bother you, tried contacting you via private message but the forum didn’t let me- I was wondering if you could answer some questions I have regarding the EasyJet MPL from a student perspective since the CAE career advisers will obviously talk about the reasons to join rather than telling me the unbiased reality…
I was wondering if the employment with EasyJet is 100% assured if you successfully finish the course, since being left without a job and an MPL license would be risky. Also, was the assessment difficult?

Best regards!

Hi - yeah I think as I'm new I haven't earned my private message privileges yet :=
Very confident it's assured, part of confirming your place on the course after passing the stage 3 assessment contains a "Conditional Offer of Employment" from easyJet, basically conditional on you passing the course.
Good support from ezy's student team throughout.

There's always some risk I suppose - from what I hear the MPL students during covid were treated well given the situation and are all now employed by ezy, so it's not of huge concern of mine.
Good post on the forum about it (won't let me link as I'm new), but to summarise another point.
"MPL restrictions: seems to be a bit of a myth these days that you'd be tied to a single airline until 1500hours. A few posters on pprune say they moved employers well under 1500 hours. And, for example, the Virgin second officer vacancy suggests they'll accept someone with an MPL and 200 hours in the last 12 months. The latter won't help if you get dropped by EZY before TR but is an example that you're not tied to a single employer for that long."

Selection is in three stages (all online on teams!) - well explained on the CAE website
From my experience (and timelines)
Stage 1 - Basically a document check, no worries if you follow the instructions and upload the right ones
Received my invite for stage 2 the day after applying.
Lots of booking slots to choose a date for stage 2, booked mine for 5 days after getting the invite.

Stage 2 - Computer based ADAPT test - Mental maths, multitasking.
I brought the ADAPT example package which I'd recommend, only downside is that the physics test for example only has 1 set of questions, still good nonetheless as the question format is exactly the same as the examples (not the same questions though)
You'll need a webcam for this as they watch you and your screen while doing it.
Lots of prep material provided, formula sheets etc (you get the formulas during the actual test too)
Nothing too hard, had friends not pass as they ran out of time while answering the questions so brush up on your maths!

Stage 3 - Group exercise / 1 on 1 interview
Received my invite for this 2 days after passing stage 2, hardest bit to start with was booking a date for it using Eventbrite as they were all booked up!
Kept refreshing a few times a day and after 6 days I booked one that was just 2 weeks after my stage 3 invite.
They host a prep session you can book onto a few days before which was really good, again lots of prep material provided by CAE.

They'll want a copy of your CV at least a few days before your stage 3, so your interviewer can look through it.

On the day we started at 8:30GMT, starting with presentation and group exercise, lots of info about working at ezy.
For the group exercise, we had a group of 4, tasked with solving a problem with a limited time frame. If you have some ability to work with people you'll be fine.
Can be a bit hard not to "step on" others while talking on teams but the assessors (who were very lovely) are well aware of this and we got quite good at working round it.

Interviews are after this, you'll be given a time and aren't expected to wait around, mine was later in the afternoon.
1 on 1 with again a really nice SFO at ezy, the prep guide tells you lots about what to expect and plan for.
Basically -
- Why you want to work for easyjet, company info, current issues affecting the industry etc
- Then it's about your motivation for being a pilot and why you have the competencies (big buzzword) to do the task

In your prep, have a good think and make some notes on examples you could use from existing jobs, clubs etc..
Got on really well with the interviewer as weirdly enough he liked planes too, ended up going on for just under 2 hours, think they said it's normally around an hour and a half.
Really chill interview, just like having a chat about work.

Normally you'd get results the next day but it was a bank holiday weekend so it took 5 days for them to tell me I'd passed.
Then they'll send a list of courses and the rest of the paperwork!

Hope that helps!

Hi, I am starting researching and found EZY MPL Programme, i see that there can be funding. How did you find your experience with this? Are you also able to have a job whilst training for 18-24months or is there a very low salary youre paid as a MPL Cadet? Thanks

Careful here, this isn’t accurate. Perhaps this is what the ATOs are telling people what they want them to hear.

Every cadet received a letter revoking their conditional offer of employment during the pandemic, with no option of an employment hold pool. The airline did later create a hold pool but that was several months later, at which point many candidates had already faced difficulties in transferring license away from the MPL. A quick search online will show you the staggering costs one ATO charged their MPL students to transfer to an ATPL, the other ATO wasn’t too far behind either.

Many students who left to transfer to an ATPL at other integrated ATOs for no additional cost (as it should be) were not re-offered employment by the airline and are now employed elsewhere. The whole situation was badly handled by all parties.

In good times the MPL works, but please keep in mind the employment offer is absolutely conditional and nothing more.

I wonder if apart from those cadets affected by COVID, other MPL cadets were denied employment at the end. That’s my biggest fear… because there are limited possibilities to join other airlines with the MPL.

Stage 2 EasyJet MPL
 

I’ve got easyJet stage 2 coming up in a week or so, I’m just looking for some advice to put my mind at ease.

On the maths and physics I’m scoring higher than 75% of people who did the tests via the Symbiotics sample questions - is this the correct level I need to be at or such I be worried? By not hitting the 90%.

Furthermore how does the test take place online? Via a zoom meeting or through some other software where they can watch you?

Any comments are much appreciated. :)

CAE Whitetails benefitted from the MPL scheme collapsing during covid

The group most badly effected were the ones that were midmay or near to completing core phase 2 around Aug 2020. Core phase 2 was not cross creditable to Integrated. It was that group that mainly transferred out to FTE to complete the Integrated route. The pseudo multi crew aspect of cp 2 was the issue for cross credit. This was the main group that lost its "offer" at Easyjet.

The MPLs at core phase 1 were able to transfer easily across to integrated as Core phase 1 was ineffect the same as Integrated phase 1 and most of phase 2. Alot of that group remained at CAE still ended up at Easyjet. As this group became integrated "tagged" rather than MPL this group ended up paying an extra 30k for the A320 rating. A small number from this group did continue with what was essentially initially an unbacked white tail MPL.

The group already at basic phase had no choice to continue with MPL.

It did stand the MPLs were the first to be recruited in early 2022. As there was no CAE MPL intake in 2021 and 2022 then this opened up offers at Easyjet for whitetail integrated graduates from CAE, L3 and later Skyborne and FTE during 2023.

Going forward it would appear Easyjets plan will be to again resort to using CAE MPL as the main source of cadets now the scheme has resumed.

Hi guys,
I have sent my application in but just wondering a bit about the Stage 2 assessments. I bought the Symbiotics bundles but like many not too impressed that there's only 1 set of questions but are the questions given in the actual assessment very similar or are they fairly different? Also if anyone has done the personality test would be grateful for a few pointers as this one wasn't included in the practise tests.

TIA

Thanks for clearing that up, been told quite a mix of experiences depending on who you ask.

No offer of any funding assistance from CAE.
I'm working part time (until heading to the US), very limited hours as you're pretty busy learning all the content.
No pay until you get to line/base training with easyJet, after around 18 months I believe

Sorry I'm a bit late to the party, from what I've heard the pass mark is 60%, so 75% sounds fine.
The online tests use the symbiotics software where you basically share your camera on a Chrome tab, no other software needed.
Hope you got on well! :)

Hi guys
Ive applied for the programme and I bought the Symbiotics ADAPT practise tests, just wondering if the actual questions are similar to the ones they give you, are they like the same questions with different numbers and worded differently or are they fairly different? Also, the personality questionnaire wasn't included in the bundle I got so if anyone has any pointers about that I'd greatly appreciate!

Thanks

They're reasonably similar, if you can solve the practice ones you'll be just fine on the real thing. Had a few which were just different numbers such as resistors in parallel.
Personality questionnaire wise, there's not really anything to practise for. They just want to see that your views / behaviours line up with what is expected of a pilot.

Think of who you would want and trust flying you and hundreds of others on holiday.

Oh ok thanks, waiting to hear back from them sent in my application over the weekend.
May sound like a silly question but are you allowed to use a pen/paper or whiteboard to do rough workings out on ?