Helicentre Aviation to fund £250,000 in helicopter scholarships

The £250,000 scholarship fund will assist prospective integrated and modular trainee helicopter pilots to fast-track their careers. The scholarships, bursaries, and part-sponsored places will be awarded by summer 2022.

The full-time, 12-month program is the only integrated Commercial Pilot Licence (CPL) course for helicopters approved in the UK. Sixteen part-sponsored integrated CPL places will be offered, totalling £100,000. These will consist of four places, each with £10,000 of part-sponsorship, and 12 places each receiving £5,000.

For modular students, a further £150,000 worth of scholarships and bursaries will be awarded consisting of one modular CPL scholarship worth up to £55,000, and a Brisdtow CPL scholarship offering a £15,000 modular CPL course paid for by Helicentre with mentorship by Bristow. This will be awarded to one candidate who shows promise in an Oil and Gas career pathway. A fully sponsored flight instructor course worth £20,000 will also be awarded a full-time position on completion, and for ab-initio students, bursaries towards the modular course will be available totalling £60,000.

Funding pilot training since 2012

Helicentre Aviation has been training professional pilots for more than two decades now, and its scholarship program has part-funded pilots through training since 2012, investing over £750,000 so far into trainees.

Head of Training, Captain Sarah Bowen explained why the company has decided to invest so much in the future pilot workforce this year: “Our scholarship program has always identified stand-out individuals and has provided us with so many high-quality personnel for our own operation, many of whom now have post-holder roles or are flying in other sectors of the helicopter industry.

“It has become really apparent, especially recently that there is a huge lack of awareness about helicopter careers as a whole. So many people choose fixed-wing careers because they don’t think opportunities exist in the helicopter industry, or they believe it is more expensive. With the demographic of an ageing helicopter pilot workforce and a sector of aviation that has been on the whole resilient through Covid-19, our goal is to raise awareness and give more applicants opportunities for part-sponsorship. This could well be the opportunity someone needs to start their life-long career as a helicopter pilot.”

AirMed&Rescue recently investigated the ways in which special missions operators can train their teams to be ready for helicopter hoist rescue scenarios.