First graduates come through new VA career training course

The first set of pilots have graduated from VA Airline Training's new Airline Career Training (ACT) course, designed to help pilots prepare for airline assessment, interview and employment.

Ruth Spalding, an experienced airline industry pilot assessment and recruiter, ran the three-day course. The ACT also incorporates two hours of airline simulator assessment training in either a B737 and A320 simulator.

"Whilst the media tells us that there is a shortage of pilots, there is still huge  competition for low-houred opportunities," said Spalding, who is MD of e2e people.

"We hope to give graduates the knowledge, understanding and skills to approach future recruitment and selection with greater confidence."

A pilot can take the career training course prior to attending an airline assessment up to a year after graduation.

Anthony Petteford MD of VA Airline Training said they introduced the course after feedback from its APS MCC graduates.

Technically well-prepared pilots "lack confidence" in the human resources aspects of airline application employment assessment, he said.

Established at Cambridge Airport in 1997, VA graduate more than 200 pilots annually.