George Coe, a pilot, was our guest on 13 March.  He gave an inspirational assembly to Year 9 about the aviation industry, followed by a talk to a group of interested pupils in Years 8 and 9.

George attended state school and college very near to Springfield and, aged 18, attained his pilot licence through company sponsorship. He started work at Goodwood Aerodrome and then worked at Farnborough Airport. He then had a job offer and moved to accept it but the company’s needs changed and it fell through. George spoke about how necessary it is to be resilient in a career so that one can cope with setbacks like this. He went on to work at Gatwick Airport in a range of roles and now runs his own flying school - https://www.coepilot.uk/ 

George used a flow chart about the operational structure of Gatwick Airport to show the vast number of roles than can exist within aviation, ranging from airfield engineering, baggage engineering to PR/Marketing and Incident Operations. He also advised Year 9 students to explore a range of careers; to gain relevant skills such as problem-solving, teamwork and adaptability; to get some experience of work and to stay curious and keep learning, as aviation is always evolving but the same will be true of many other sectors.

After the assembly, George kindly stayed to do a Q&A session with a smaller group of pupils in Years 8 and 9 and answered questions ranging from his favourite types of aircraft and celebrities he had flown to 'can you do a flip?' (the answer was yes!).