Go-Ahead reveals British Airways pilots are applying for its APPRENTICESHIPS as Covid jobs crisis bites

Travel group Go-Ahead has revealed it saw 20,000 applications for its 650 new apprenticeships this year in a stark illustration of the pandemic's hit to UK employment. 

Applicants who were made redundant before turning to the transport trainee roles included an ex-British Airways pilot, a guitar teacher, and leisure sector workers.

Go-Ahead - which runs multiple bus services for Transport for London and part-owns Govia, the company behind Southeastern and Govia Thameslink Railway - saw more than 20,000 applications for apprentice bus and train drivers, engineer and customer service positions in 2020.  

The train divisions received around 12,000 applications each, up from 6,000 apiece last year. 

Enquiries about roles driving and maintaining London buses were up by a third in the year, with overall bus role applications up 50%. 

Go-Ahead said many people applied because their previous jobs "became untenable".

It comes after latest unemployment figures released yesterday revealed the UK saw 819,000 job losses since February, with 370,000 between August and October alone - more than at any point on record.

Lee Portelli, 41, a father of two from east London, was made redundant from his job as a BA airline pilot this summer, and joined Southeastern in November to retrain as a driver.  

Portelli said he “was looking for something that used those skills I’d developed in the airline business”. 

Katy Taylor, Go-Ahead Chief Strategy & Customer Officer, said:  “These are people who wouldn’t necessarily have been thinking about working in public transport. I think one reason for the application numbers is that public transport has kept going through pandemic.