Ireland-based airline Aer Lingus has announced the launch of its 2023 aircraft engineer apprenticeship program under which it plans to hire 15 apprentices. 

The four-year program runs in conjunction with SOLAS, the Shannon-based Irish state further education and training agency, and Technological University Dublin. 

Javier Jimenez, chief technical officer at Aer Lingus notes that the new apprenticeship scheme will provide a valuable opportunity for aspiring aircraft engineers to gain practical experience.

“Safety is at the heart of everything we do in Aer Lingus and our engineers play an immensely important role in delivering a smooth operation for the airline,” he says. “Our apprenticeship enables us to encourage and develop raw talent that is crucial to evolving our maintenance and engineering team.” 

Starting in September 2023, the program consists of both theoretical and practical training, where apprentices work primarily on line maintenance. 

According to an Aer Lingus spokesperson, apprentices will have their classroom training alternate between Dublin and Shannon, as well as on-the-job training at Aer Lingus's maintenance and engineering hangar at Dublin airport. 

It says upon the successful completion of the program, the apprentices will be fully qualified as aircraft engineers and will have an opportunity to continue work at the airline. 

Since the first launch of the apprenticeship programme in 2011, Aer Lingus says that it has hired 140 maintenance and engineering apprentices directly from the program. 

In January, Aer Lingus graduated 27 newly qualified aircraft engineers from its previous apprenticeship programmes.

The airline says all 27 graduates have joined Aer Lingus's maintenance division, which provides MRO services to the carrier’s fleet of Airbus aircraft including A321neo and A320neo aircraft.