From the Express and Echo

City-based airline Flybe is one of three firms which have won Government approval to become an exam board.The budget airline, along with fast-food giant McDonald’s and Network Rail, has been given the go ahead by the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority to make awards ranging from GCSE to degree level in courses including engineering and cabin crew training.

The announcement marks the first time commercial companies have been allowed to award nationally-recognised qualifications based on their own workplace training schemes.

The initiative is aimed at giving official credit to training that would otherwise not be widely recognised outside the companies concerned.

Flybe will be developing its airline trainer programme later this year and it will include on-the-job training, classroom-based modules at the airline and external learning at either Exeter College or Exeter University.

The scheme fits in with the airline’s plans to build a new training academy for its employees. The academy, which will be sited close to the airport, will service the firm’s workforce, both those based at Exeter and also around the rest of the country.

Mike Rutter, chief commercial officer for Flybe, said: “This should give employees transferable skills within the general aviation industry. “Outside of the industry, it will also give recognition to the fact that they will have spent a lot of time in training and doing classroom-based modules. It builds on our plan to make the South West and Exeter a major sector for the aviation industry. It’s very good news for the economy here in the South West. It marks how far we have come in the last five to six years. It makes us very proud.”

The airline’s chairman, Jim French, said Flybe had found many people coming to them for jobs with skills that were unsuitable. During a recent recruitment drive for engineers, the firm found only 30 per cent of 150 applicants had the appropriate skills, he said.

The Devon and Cornwall Business Council has long been calling for more attention to be paid to training of school leavers. And chairman Tim Jones said: “This is a flagship project and the fact that Flybe has been included with the likes of international names like McDonald’s is great. This is one of Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s personal challenges – to engage with the private sector at the highest level to improve skills. The fact that Flybe has been put in this exalted position says a lot about it as an operator. This project will offer an opportunity for local people to really get involved. I can see no negatives at all.”