Apprentices
Our apprenticeships have been designed to give you the best possible start to your career, across our Customer, Business and Operations teams. You’ll earn while you learn, and gain qualifications along the way, too.
If you have the passion and the ambition, then we have the experience to help you embark on a thrilling career in aviation. This is your chance to begin a journey with the nation’s flag carrier, and get a head start with one of the UK’s very best apprentice employers.
You can view the variety of opportunities we have available below.
Apprenticeships
Customer
Business
Operations
Customer
Customer Service
You’ll be a true ambassador for British Airways as you assist our customers at London Heathrow – one of the world’s largest and busiest airports. If you’re the type of person who can strike up a connection with anyone, you’ll really excel during this 18-month programme.
Customer Service Advisor
Based in Manchester or Newcastle, you’ll be doing everything from booking a customer’s dream holiday to answering all their questions about British Airways products across the two year programme. A natural warmth and genuine passion for helping people will see you thrive in this vital role.
Business
Business Professional
You’ll get to taste a range of different departments at our Heathrow Head Office during this three-year programme. It could be collating Cabin Crew performance data, organising fundraising events for our charity partners or coordinating activity at our worldwide airports.
Data Science
Data is at the core of every decision we make at British Airways, and you’ll play a key role in helping innovative ideas take flight across the four-year degree programme. There will be opportunities to improve customer experience and work on projects that are disrupting the aviation industry.
Aspiring Leaders
This exciting four-year degree apprenticeship will see you taking on several rotational placements across Head Office and beyond including Customer Experience, Commercial, Operations and Strategy. You’ll gain the knowledge, skills, and behaviours to become the type of leader we need.
Operations
Heathrow Aircraft Maintenance
Help us take care of our fleet and support our worldwide engineering operation at our base in Heathrow, where you’ll complete rotational placements to service and repair our aircraft. The three year programme will give you the knowledge, skills and behaviours to achieve your A-licence and become a professional Aircraft Engineer. You’ll need to hold or be predicted a grade 5 in Maths.
Glasgow Aircraft Maintenance
Based at Glasgow International Airport, this challenging three-year apprenticeship programme will require you to support in the service and repair of the British Airways short-haul fleet. At the same time, you'll study towards the formal qualifications needed to become a professional Aircraft Engineer. This is a fantastic opportunity to contribute to our outstanding engineering operation.
Wales Aircraft Maintenance
This programme provides a unique opportunity for apprentices to experience a variety of roles right across the British Airways fleet, including Aircraft Maintenance, Interiors Engineering and Aircraft Avionics, based in Barry, Cardiff. After three years, you’ll be ready to become a professional Aircraft Engineer.
Aircraft Workshop
You’ll develop engineering skills, giving you aircraft components to repair in ramp and hangar environments. Across the three and a half year scheme, you’ll rotate through different workshops to understand the nature of every highly sophisticated aircraft component.
Engineering Supply Chain
Every day, you’ll support the worldwide engineering logistics operation by shipping aircraft components to our UK bases and overseas line stations. You’ll work in different areas of logistics and inventory management, gaining the experience to help keep materials flowing to our engineers and aircraft.
Ground Operations
Our Ground Operations teams play a critical role getting our fleet ready for take off, on time. You’ll gain experience at Europe’s busiest airport, Heathrow, working across Baggage Handling, Aircraft Loading and Ground Logistics; ensuring our customers have an outstanding experience.
US Engineering Cadet
Our partnership with AIM college enables engineering students to join a sponsored 3 year program to put their engineering theory into practice across one of our US engineering bases. Spending some time in London, our engineering cadets gain all the skills they need to become certified aircraft engineers.
Why British Airways?
We want all our people to feel valued for the role they play at British Airways. That includes all our emerging talent. It’s why our graduates and apprentices get the same benefits as our other colleagues, right from the day they join. Here are just some of the rewards you’ll get to enjoy when you arrive at British Airways. They include some rather good travel perks, too.
Discounted travel
Heavily discounted air travel for yourself, friends and family accompanied with a generous annual leave entitlement or 26 days to turn your bucket list into reality.
Champion Sustainability
Play a part in driving our sustainability agenda through fundraising for charity partners, volunteering for charities or championing our colleague diversity networks.
Become an ambassador
Access our Graduate and Apprentice Networks to learn from current and former colleagues on our schemes, and volunteer to inspire the next generation to consider an aviation career.
Speedbird-Z
Like what you see? Explore more of the world of aviation by registering to our dedicated student website, Speedbird-Z.
This one-stop-shop gives you the opportunity to directly chat online with our colleagues, register for upcoming events we are running or attending, and complete learning modules to build your confidence in employability, as well as learn more about British Airways.
Learn more
Our programmes
Our apprenticeships have been designed to give you the best possible start to your career, across our Customer, Business and Operations teams. You’ll earn while you learn, and gain qualifications along the way, too. View our Apprenticeship programmes below.
See below to apply for the roles we are currently hiring for. Don't forget to register with Speedbird-Z above to chat online with our colleagues and complete learning modules to enhance your skills, above. You can also join our Talent pool at the bottom of this page so we can contact you when applications open.
Customer Service
Duration: 18 Months
Location: London Heathrow
Requirements: Aged 17 by apprenticeship start date. English and Maths GCSE at grade 9 - 4 (A*- C) is desirable.
Salary: £16,916
Applications: Open 4th November 2024
About the scheme:
Working on varied shifts in Customer Service at Heathrow Airport, you’ll take on duties across the team – from check in and flight connections to arrivals and premium areas. Your helpful, welcoming personality will equip you to meet, greet, deal with queries and be a true ambassador for our brand. The role will give a phenomenal insight into the entire customer journey. We can promise that most days will be anything but ‘every day’, especially with so many different customers to meet and colleagues to support in our every-changing industry.
Throughout the programme, you’ll study towards the Aviation Customer Service Operative apprenticeship.
Customer Service Advisor
Duration: 2 Years
Location: Newcastle
Requirements: Aged 16 by apprenticeship start date. English and Maths GCSE at grade 9 - 4 (A*- C) is desirable.
Salary: £19,689
Applications: Open 4th November 2024
About the scheme:
We’ll make sure you’re ready to deliver the very best service to our customers in our Global Engagement Centres, by giving you full training on everything that goes into our unique British Airways hospitality. It’s not about following a script – it’s about using your personal judgement and product knowledge to get the best outcome for all, even when you’re dealing with incredibly sensitive situations. With your natural adaptability and flair for customer service, you’ll be supporting customers on the phone, by email and through social media channels to help book their dream holiday or answer queries about their bookings. It’s a demanding, high pressure, but ultimately rewarding role that gives you the kind of experience and knowledge that’ll be valuable in any part of our business.
Business Professional
Duration: 3 Years
Location: London Heathrow
Requirements: English and Maths GCSE at grade 9 - 4 (A*- C) is desirable.
Salary: £19,420
Applications: Open 4th November 2024
About the scheme:
Completing rotational placements in our head office and beyond, you’ll need to be ready for anything. We’ll give you real responsibility from the first day. We want you to meet every challenge head on in our fast-paced, collaborative culture. It could be collating and analysing Cabin Crew performance data, running meetings at Heathrow or organising an internal conference. Every step along the way, you’ll be working with, and supported by, people from different teams and business levels. For the first 12 months, you will study towards a Business Administration qualification. Upon successful completion, tailored conversations will then explore your onward pathway to study a further qualification within a more specialised area of our business.
Data Science
Duration: 4 Years
Location: London Heathrow
Requirements: GCSEs in English and Maths at grade 9 - 4 (A*- C) or equivalent. As well as hold or be predicted to hold 3 A Levels totalling a minimum of 128 UCAS points (equivalent to ABB), with a minimum grade of B at A Level Maths, or equivalent.
Salary: £26,938
Applications: Closed for 2024. Please revisit us in Autumn 2025.
About the scheme:
Airlines are complex, everchanging and data rich, which means that the industry provides one of the most varied and interesting places for data and analytics professionals to work. Projects like tracking flight revenue against commercial targets, or measuring the impact on a change in fares, requires a creative approach identifying and exploiting value from current and new data sources, applying advanced analytical techniques and visualisations. You will study a Level 6 BSc in Data Science with our chosen training provider NCH.
Aspiring Leader
Duration: 4 Years
Location: London Heathrow
Requirements: GCSEs at grade 9 - 4 (A*- C) are desirable, and you’ll need to hold or be predicted to hold 2 A Level passes or Level 3 equivalent.
Salary: £26,938
Applications: Closed for 2024. Please revisit us in Autumn 2025.
About the scheme:
You’ll need to be ready for anything. We’ll give you real responsibility from your first day. This apprenticeship will see you taking on several rotational placements in our Head Office and beyond, giving an in-depth insight into our colleague and customer experience and commercial, operations and strategy roles. You will gain the knowledge, skills and behaviours to become the type of leader we need, in our journey to A Better BA. On placement, you'll lead projects, be a key player in developing and implementing new ideas and even have the opportunity to mentor colleagues, giving you people management experience. In addition to all these amazing experiences, you’ll also complete a placement at Heathrow Airport in our customer experience team - enabling you to gain a real-life insight on the frontline with our customers, and use this learning to influence the projects you’ll be working on. You will study a Level 6 in Chartered Management qualification.
Heathrow Aircraft Maintenance
Duration: 3 Years
Location: London Heathrow
Requirements: Aged 16 by apprenticeship start date. Minimum of a grade 5 (B) in Maths. English and Science GCSE at grade 9 – 4 (A* - C) is desirable. We accept predicted grades but they must be achieved by the start of the apprenticeship. If you are already studying towards or have studied an engineering qualification, you are welcome to apply. Following your application, we will conduct a skills scan of your experience and prior qualifications to check your eligibility for apprenticeship funding.
Salary: £15,035, increasing in year 2 & 3.
Applications: Open 4th November 2024
About the scheme:
You’ll work alongside and learn from some incredibly talented engineers to become an aircraft engineer of tomorrow. Every day, you’ll develop your skills on real aircraft, in a real job. The initial training for this Apprenticeship will take place at our London Heathrow base. For the majority of the first year, you will then be based off-site and living away from home which is where you will train and study towards your CAA Part-66 Category A Licence Modules, as well as a Level 2 Diploma in Aerospace and Aviation Engineering, City and Guilds 4605-2. During your time away from Heathrow, we will provide complimentary accommodation for you close to your training base.
For years two and three, you will return to our Heathrow Base to work alongside our engineers with the potential to be placed in one of our other UK operational bases. You’ll continue to study towards achieving a Level 3 Engineering Technician apprenticeship (Aircraft Maintenance Fitter/Technician - Fixed and Rotary Wing); and by completing a Level 3 Diploma in Aviation Maintenance (Development Competence).
Glasgow Aircraft Maintenance
Duration: 3 Years
Location: Glasgow Airport, increasing in year 2
Requirements: Five National 5’s at grades A – C (or equivalent) which must include English, any Science subject and Maths. We do accept predicted grades, but they will need to be achieved by the apprenticeship start date.
Salary: £17,339
Applications: Open 4th November 2024. Apply by visiting Apprenticeships Scot.
About the scheme:
British Airways Maintenance Glasgow (BAMG) carries out heavy maintenance on the British Airways short haul fleet of Airbus A319/A320/A321 aircraft within a two-bay hangar based at Glasgow International Airport. This is an exciting and challenging opportunity to become the future talent in aircraft engineering. The Apprenticeship is a three-year programme with direct entry to British Airways Engineering, aimed at developing you to become a professional Aircraft Engineer and assist in the delivery of an outstanding engineering operation. The programme is crafted to give you a broad understanding of the Engineering Operation whilst gaining the qualifications you need to become a future Aircraft Mechanic.
Due to the nature of the scheme, you are ineligible to apply if you hold, or are due to achieve, any of the following qualifications (please look out for experienced Engineer roles on our team instead).
• A C&G / SVQ level 3 qualification in Aircraft Maintenance.
• An HNC/HND or degree in Engineering.
• Any EASA Part 66 A or B license modules.
Wales Aircraft Maintenance
Duration: 3 Years
Location: Barry, Cardiff
Requirements: Achieved or are predicted to achieve 5 GCSES A* - C including a B grade in Maths, C or above in English Language and Science. Alternatively, we will accept Level 2 qualification in Engineering (which includes the study of Mathematics and Science at Distinction level).
Salary: £12,000, increasing in year 2
Applications: Open 4th November 2024
About the scheme:
Our British Airways Engineering Wales team encompass two apprenticeships of specialised engineering including aircraft maintenance and electrical engineering, where apprentices complete rotational placements. The apprenticeships, based at Coleg y Cymoedd, Nantgarw Campus, will be full time on an enhanced engineering programme in year one. You will study a technical certificate as well as an NVQ practical qualification.
On successful completion of year one, you will then work on site at British Airways Engineering Wales (BAEW) in year two, with one day released to college per week. During this year you will work towards the second year of your technical certificate and in the workplace, you will follow an industry relevant NVQ practical qualification. Year three will see you work full time at British Airways whilst continuing with the second year of the NVQ practical qualification. All of this will enable you to work alongside our world-class engineers after your apprenticeship.
Aircraft Workshop
Duration: 3.5 Years
Location: London Heathrow
Requirements: Aged 16 by apprenticeship start date. Minimum of a grade 5 (B) in Maths (we accept predicted grades but they must be achieved by the start of the apprenticeship). English and Science GCSE at grade 9 – 4 (A* - C) is desirable.
Salary: £16,916 increasing in year 2 & 3
Applications: Open 4th November 2024
About the scheme:
They’ll help you to develop your engineering skills, whilst repairing aircraft components in both ‘ramp’ and ‘hangar’ environments. You’ll rotate through different workshops, learning different skillsets, so you understand the nature of highly sophisticated aircraft components. Every day will feel new, and you’re going to be busy. As well as training on the job, you’ll be studying for the qualifications you need to become one of our future Workshop Engineers.
The initial training will take place at our London Heathrow Base. For the remainder of the first year, this Apprenticeship will then split between Farnborough College of Technology, where you will study towards a Composite Technician apprenticeship and the job training at British Airways. For year one, you will achieve an EAL level 2 Diploma in Advanced Manufacturing Engineering and study towards your knowledge skills and behaviours, and you will undertake placements at British Airways Heathrow base. In your second year, you will still attend college to further cover the knowledge skills and behaviours criteria and in your final year you will complete your work-based portfolio of evidence in preparation for the end point assessment which will complete your apprenticeship.
We will also supplement your learning with additional Aircraft related training in Air Legislation, Human Factors and Aircraft Composite repairs.
Due to the nature of the scheme, we cannot accept an application if you have achieved prior qualifications of HNC/HND or Degree in Engineering; or a BTEC Level 3 in Engineering.
Engineering Supply Chain
Duration: 15 Months
Location: London Heathrow
Requirements: Aged 16 by apprenticeship start date. 3 GCSE’s including English and Maths GCSE at grade 9 - 4 (A* - C) is desirable.
Salary: £16,916
Applications: Open 4th November 2024
About the scheme:
You’ll work alongside and learn from some incredible people who support our engineering operation around the globe. Every day, you’ll develop your skills in a worldwide logistics operation, shipping aircraft components to our UK maintenance bases and overseas line stations. Over a series of placements, you’ll work in different areas of logistics and inventory management, gaining the experience and know how to help keep materials flowing to our engineers and aircraft. You’re going to be busy. Alongside comprehensive on-the-job training, you’ll be studying towards the qualifications you need to become one of our future Material Suppliers. You will also have opportunities to work in different operational environments supporting our aircraft maintenance inputs, ensuring that the right materials arrive at the right time in the right location.
Ground Operations
Duration: 18 Months
Location: London Heathrow
Requirements: 3 GCSE’s including English and Maths GCSE at grade 9 - 4 (A* - C) is desirable. Full UK manual driving licence with 6 months driving experience by the start of the programme, and due to the manual handling aspect of the job, you’ll need to be able to lift up to 32kg.
Salary: £16,916
Applications: Open 4th November 2024
About the scheme:
It takes a carefully coordinated team effort to ensure our customers, and their luggage, leave on time, all the time. British Airways colleagues in Baggage Handling, Aircraft Loading and Ground Logistics all play their part. You’ll gain experience across all three teams, to learn how to operate our different systems and vehicles – and to gain a full understanding of how we deal with disruption and keep fights on schedule.
There’s a big focus on safety and security, so you’ll be kitted out with uniform, protective equipment and weather-resistant gear to enable you to do your job safely. You also need to be flexible and adaptable to different shift patterns, and just as happy being outdoors in all kinds of weather conditions. With extensive training, support and hands on experience, the programme will give you everything you need to gain an apprenticeship as an Aviation Ground Operative.
US Engineering Cadet
Duration: 3 Years
Location: Various stations in US
Requirements: Enrolled on a programme with AIM college.
Salary: $70,000
Applications: Open 2nd December 2024
About the scheme:
You’ll complete two years tuition at AIM, and then join us for a three year program to put your theory into practice. Most of the time, you’ll be working at the designated station to build your experience and skills, as well as a few trips to our hub in London for 2-3 weeks at a time to gain further business understanding and explore other engineering functions. Throughout the program, you will be mentored by experienced British Airways engineers who will provide valuable insights and support, helping you navigate your path to becoming a fully licensed aircraft engineer.
