- government announces winners of its Reach for the Sky
Challenge Fund, which aims to educate young people from all
backgrounds about the opportunities on offer in aviation
- eleven winning projects include a special career mentoring
and coaching programme for aspiring students and a series of
flying and engineering taster days and workshops
- forms part of Generation Aviation, a joint-government
industry campaign to build the aviation workforce of the future
The government is today (1 February 2023) announcing the winners
of its Reach for the
Sky Challenge Fund, which will help to get young people from
all backgrounds into aviation.
Eleven non-profit organisations have been selected, with £700,000
going to fund outreach programmes and events to show the next
generation what opportunities the aviation sector can offer.
For those who have previously struggled to get a foothold in this
exciting industry, the aim of the fund is to break down barriers
– targeting those schemes which provide an entry point for people
who are from underprivileged backgrounds or under-represented
groups.
It forms part of the new Generation Aviation
campaign which recognises that, for the sector to successfully
adapt to the challenges of tomorrow, it needs a robust, open, and
diverse workforce – with a reliable pool of talent from the full
range of science, technology, engineering and mathematics
(STEM)
fields and other critical roles.
The Transport Secretary will announce the winners today at the
very first Aviation Council – one of the first commitments in the
government’s 10-year strategy for the sector, Flightpath to the
Future.
Transport Secretary said:
Innovation propels aviation and for it to face up to tomorrow’s
challenges it needs an open and diverse workforce that can bring
fresh ideas and ways of working.
Our Reach for the Sky Challenge Fund recipients will be
key to that, inspiring the next generation into the sector and
helping to build an aviation workforce fit for the future.
I was pleased to chair the first ever Aviation Council today and
continue our healthy collaboration with industry, supporting it
in every way we can, so it can continue to push boundaries.
Among the 11 winning organisations are:
Resilient Pilot – a non-profit organisation who
will receive £100,000 to develop a special mentoring and coaching
programme for young students aged 11 to 18, inspiring the next
generation to explore exciting and rewarding careers in the UK’s
aviation sector.
The Air League – a charity which will receive
£50,000 to support their Soaring to Success programme, looking to
improve social mobility and helping support 35,000 spaces on
their programme and up to 1,100 flying and engineering taster
days and workshops targeted at young people from lower
socio-economic groups.
Aerobility – a charity which will also receive
over £100,000 to fund their Equal Skies Charter, aimed at
increasing accessibility in the sector. They will use the funding
to work with partners across the industry to raise the level of
understanding of what disability is and what accessibility means
to their organisation.
Before the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the air transport and
aerospace sectors contributed at least £22 billion to gross
domestic product (GDP) each year and provided at
least 230,000 jobs across all regions of the country directly.
However, there are several challenges ahead, from decarbonisation
to changing travelling patterns following the pandemic.
Tackling these challenges is the aim of Generation Aviation,
which forms part of the government’s 22-point plan to support
aviation as it recovers from the pandemic. Also included in
the campaign is the government’s aviation skills recruitment
platform (ASRP) – which
signposts careers and opportunities to people looking to enter or
move up in the industry – among other schemes.
Organisations meeting the criteria for the Reach for the Sky
Challenge Fund were able to apply for a share of £700,000, with
funding decisions agreed by a joint panel of the Department for
Transport and the Civil Aviation Authority – which manages the
fund on DfT’s
behalf.
