Aerospace scholarship winner achieves CAA licence

My name is Aaron MacLeod and I am originally from the Isle of Lewis in the Western Isles of Scotland. In 2023, I was fortunate to be jointly awarded the Aerotron scholarship along with Bradley Hamilton in the livery year of September 2022 to August 2023.

I am writing to the Coachmakers let you all know that after a six-month wait following my application, I received the news that I have been granted my Part 66 B1.1 Aircraft Maintenance Engineering Licence by the Civil Aviation Authority after working for Boeing UK for more than four years on both rotary and fixed-wing aircraft. I am absolutely thrilled to have achieved this at 22 years old and cannot thank the Coachmakers and Aerotron Ltd enough for awarding me a scholarship to make this possible. The qualification was not offered through my employer and the Coachmakers made it possible for this career achievement.

The Aerotron award has allowed me the opportunity to sit the remaining seven exam modules I had outstanding at Resource Group in Kemble and at KLM UK Technical College in Norwich. The award also made it possible for me to attend a lecturer taught course instead of self-studying, which greatly helped my learning and understanding and subsequently resulted in me passing the exams first time. This was a major benefit as it accelerated my career by a number of years. It has also given me the opportunity to study early on in my career as I did not need to spend time saving up the funds to attend these courses. Without the support of the Coachmakers I would not be in this fortunate position.

The scholarship has also been pivotal in my further career progression. I am happy to share that at the start of 2024 I was offered a position on the Aer Lingus Cadet Pilot scheme. I believe my experience interviewing and subsequently being awarded such a prestigious scholarship was one of the reasons I was selected by Aer Lingus. The scholarship has been life changing for me and I really cannot thank the Coachmakers and Aerotron Ltd enough for the wonderful support through the means of this award and I look forward to perhaps being involved with the Coachmakers going forward.

Bradley Hamilton and Aaron MacLeod receive their awards