Behind Flybe's training initiatives also lies a radical change in the way UK government funding can be accessed for vocational skills.
At the top of the pyramid is Ofqual, the Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulator, and industry's interface with this is via the Sector Skills Council, the transport industry's part of which is dubbed GoSkills.
Flybe's director of safety, quality and training Simon Witts has been appointed to GoSkills' board of directors. Meanwhile the workforce development director at GoSkills, Vicki Ball, explains that traditionally skills development funding has been directed well beneath degree level - hence Flybe's NVQ2 for cabin crew being the first it has achieved.
But Ball says now that "apprenticeships are at the top of the [training] agenda", and Witts says he sees a possibility that government facilitation for higher level vocational skills that industry genuinely needs are becoming increasingly likely.
Source: Flight International
