June 06, 2019

Wellbeing Curriculum For Trainee Pilots

At Leading Edge Aviation, we believe that preparation for your future as an airline pilot starts on day one of training.

With us, you’ll receive dedicated ground and flight instruction that will see you graduating on time and airline-ready, but you’ll also receive much more. Students on our integrated Leading Edge Airline Preparation (LEAP) degree course will benefit from a personal and professional development as well as a brand new wellbeing support programme that launches this week.

At Leading Edge, we will help you develop the full range of technical, non-technical and life skills that you’ll need to make a success of your training and a success of your future career. With small classes, individual mentoring, high-quality accommodation and a close-knit team, we hope you’ll feel supported and empowered as you progress through your course. We know that a professional flying career is one of the most exhilarating in the world, with the best office views of any profession, but it’s also demanding and comes with some challenges.

Factors such as jet-lag, intense working conditions, time away from home and variable shift patterns contribute to a lifestyle that needs to be managed with skill and self-awareness in order to report for every duty ‘fit to fly’ and ready for a busy flight – or four.

LEAP students will have the benefit of access to wellbeing services provided by occupational health experts, Wellspace. Through Wellspace, you’ll receive a broad range of training and support that covers the three areas of wellbeing: energy, activity and resilience.

You’ll be provided with an interactive wellness app that syncs with your own wearable device. Plus, throughout your course, there will be seminars on subjects such as sleep, nutrition, mindfulness and stress. One to one support from Wellspace’s team of coaches, behaviour experts and medical practitioners will also be available, should you wish to make use of it.

Just last week the World Health Organisation officially classed ‘Occupational Burn-out’ as a disease and added the condition to its catalogue, the International Classification of Diseases, a year after global health experts recommended it. Meanwhile BALPA, the British Airline Pilots’ Association, report hearing increasingly of cases of long-term sickness related to fatigue and burnout, as well as increased demand for part-time work.

We know that airlines and unions are working to reduce the risk of pilot fatigue, but we want to equip you to cope with the demands of life as a busy airline pilot from the very start of your training. That way, by the time you graduate, you’ll have a toolkit of healthy habits and skills and will be able to manage the high workload and demanding rosters that come with your exciting new career with ease.

“We believe this wellness provision, delivered in partnership with Wellspace, is the first of its kind for a pilot training academy. Student wellbeing is a huge priority for us, as is our commitment to offering a training course that develops the pilot as a whole. The LEAP programme not only gives trainees the regulatory technical and non-technical skills that airlines require, but also a substantial personal and professional development curriculum that allows our students to thrive personally and professionally during training and, later, in their future career,”

Andy McFarlane,CEO Leading Edge Aviation

Want to know more? Please get in touch, we’d love to hear from you.

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