For more than 130 years, The Air League has opened doors into aviation careers for young people across the UK. Today, that mission has taken on new urgency, as the aviation and aerospace sectors face a worldwide skills shortage.
Vertage - previously known as Impellam Group - has partnered with The Air League for the past two years to help close that gap. The Air League had funding earmarked specifically for driving people into aircraft engineering for candidates looking to be an aircraft engineer through a university route.
Bridging the gap between study and hands-on experience
Those with degrees in aeronautical engineering and maintenance often have the technical knowledge and drive, but unlike those entering through an apprenticeship, they have little practical experience working on aircraft. As a result, they struggle to find work with organisations who seek this hands-on knowledge.
Vertage has relationships with both universities offering this degree and aeronautic employers, and as a result we sit on both sides of the equation.
Why practical experience matters
"For those taking the university route, day to day practical skill practise is hard to achieve," said Chris Blackburn Director of Skills Growth at Vertage, previously Impellam Group.
"There is no doubt that universities provide an incredible opportunity for students to gain the very highest level of knowledge and certification in aircraft engineering, and whilst the level of engineering hand skills is really good, it can’t compete with those that are working on aircraft daily, but the industry has skills challenges and therefore it was important for us to bridge the gap between university and employers."
Turning placements into career pathways
That structure has already produced results. In 2025, three students travelled to Heathrow for a two-week placement with Virgin Atlantic, with all travel, accommodation and meals funded by The Air League. Two of those three are now full-time graduate employees. This year, the programme moved to Atlantic Aviation in Brize Norton, where interns worked on the Airbus A400M military aircraft.
The scheme does more than place students. Current graduate engineers design and run the internship themselves, handling applications, interviews, selection and feedback as evidence for their own leadership development. It is a self-sustaining loop, where today's interns become tomorrow's internship leadership team, getting the management experience that could leapfrog their career, running the same programme that gave them their own start.
Benjamin Harris, The Air League's Scholarship Programme and Operations Manager, thanked Vertage directly for its role.
"We really appreciate the time and effort put in to make the placements a success," he stated.
"We’re excited to see this year’s participants make the most of this opportunity and hopefully go on to build great careers in aerospace and looking forward to working together again in 2027 on the next round of Engineering Scholarships."
A practical response to an industry-wide skills gap
For an industry facing an ageing workforce nearing retirement and a widening skills gap, partnerships like this offer a practical answer. They give talented graduates a route into an industry that badly needs them with an academic boost that might give them a faster route to leadership and give employers a pipeline of engineers who have already put a spanner to an aircraft before their first day on the job.
Both sides call it a model worth repeating, and the plans for 2027 suggest they mean it.
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