With just over a week to go until the application deadline for Helicentre Aviation’s 2013 Professional Helicopter Pilot Scholarships, the training academy has announced the launch of at least two further scholarship places to be awarded in 2014.

The announcement comes as exciting news for this year’s scholarship hopefuls, who will get a second chance to apply if unsuccessful this time around, but it also gives an opportunity for new pilots and those who are too late to complete this year’s application process to start out on a potentially life-changing, substantially funded career path.

Captain Sarah Bowen, Helicentre Aviation’s Managing Director says “Our Scholarship Programme was born as a result of our own shortage of company helicopter pilots, particularly flight instructors. Despite receiving over a thousand registrations of interest for this year’s Scholarships, and allowing over 14 months from the initial launch to the application deadline, we are absolutely taken aback at the small numbers of applicants. Ultimately two deserving pilots will be awarded their places this June following a series of interviews and we are very excited, not only about providing these pilots with their training and qualifications, but also their first opportunity to work in the helicopter industry as a professional pilot”.

The early announcement of the 2014 Scholarships is hoped to encourage applicants to get their submissions in without delay to avoid missing out on the opportunity, which will definitely result in employment for the successful candidates. This year alone at least two pilots who graduated from Helicentre Aviation’s Professional Pilot Programme and continued onto working full time at Helicentre have now secured jobs in Canada and the North Sea.

Further details about the 2014 Scholarships will be released in May, and a series of open days will be held at Leicester Airport during the summer months for prospective candidates to attend and find out more about the new Scholarships.