British Airways and Oracle are both using social media as key planks of new recruitment drives that are being described as among their biggest ever.
The UK’s flag carrier airline is using YouTube to promote three new hiring schemes that will comprise its biggest pilot recruitment drive in 10 years.
It plans to take on more than 800 new pilots by 2016, with about half of the places being offered under the ‘Future Pilot Programme’ to first-time trainees currently enrolled in approved flight schools in the UK and Spain.
The aim is to fill the remaining positions with pilots from rival airlines and with ex-military personnel who will be re-trained by BA in a joint venture with the Armed Forces. The planned hirings are equivalent to about a quarter of the carrier’s current 3,200 pilot staff base.
Captain Robin Glover, head of pilot recruitment at BA, said: “The Future Pilot Programme is a fantastic opportunity for anyone from any background to realise their ambition of becoming a pilot and flying for British Airways. By removing the barrier of initial training costs and making it more accessible to a wider range of people, we hope to be able to attract the very best talent out there.”
The cost of training each applicant will be up to £100,000 but, according to the Metro newspaper, the fees will be covered by sponsor company Airline Placement Ltd, with trainees paying the money back later on in their career.
A spokesman for the British Airline Pilot’s Association told the BBC that the union was pleased BA was “allowing the best pilots, not just those with the most money, to fly for them”.
Balpa had been warning for some time that an industry recruitment freeze since the recession risked leaving airlines short of personnel over the years ahead, he added.
Software giant Oracle, meanwhile, revealed that it planned to create 1,700 jobs across Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Sales staff will make up the lion’s share of the new positions, but fresh roles are also being created in business development, finance, engineering and other support functions.
The firm currently employs about 22,000 workers in the EMEA region, but declined to clarify how many new jobs would be created in the UK.
Recruitment will take place via traditional channels as well as social media sites such as Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook.
