Education
It takes a lot of people to run a major international airport.
Around 76,500 people work at Heathrow, with many young people from local communities working here at some stage in their careers.
We describe our approach to managing education employment and skills at Heathrow using a model based on control, guide and influence in our report Towards a Sustainable Heathrow – a focus on education, employment and skills.
As part of our strategy to enhance Heathrow's local employment benefits, we seek to inform young people living nearby about the wide range of careers available at Heathrow and the qualifications needed to take on these roles. This helps them make choices about further education and career options.
Teachers and careers advisors play an important role in guiding students on their next steps after leaving school. We invite them to attend open days to learn about apprenticeships and careers at Heathrow, so they can advise pupils and prepare them for the annual Heathrow Apprenticeship Fair (see Employment and Skills).
We also aim to help young people develop skills that are relevant to airport careers. For example, we hold competitions for local school children to devise airport engineering and construction solutions. Taking part gives students an insight into these technical careers, and teaches them valuable teamwork, communication and problem-solving skills.
We have helped to improve educational facilities within our neighbouring communities, helping 15 local secondary schools achieve "specialist status" and providing funding support for schemes in Feltham, Hayes, Slough and Spelthorne that provide vocational education opportunities.
Our strategy
We help young people to understand and access airport careers and develop relevant skills through the following objective:
1. Contribute towards raising young people's aspirations
Goal: Increase local young peoples’ awareness of careers at Heathrow
Key actions
- Deliver a construction challenge to 2,000 year six pupils
- Deliver an engineering challenge to 2,000 year eight pupils
- Hold two training days to help local teachers and personal advisers understand more about Heathrow apprenticeships
