Q & A

Q What does the Aer Lingus trainee pilot scheme offer? What do I need for this? Are there any other training courses available here?

- Dublin student

The Aer Lingus scheme recruits quite a small number of pilots; you must be 18 at least and have a good standard of education and a proven ability to apply yourself successfully to a course of academic or technical study.

Selection is made by aptitude test and interview; you must be in good physical condition with good hearing and normal eyesight (within defined limits correcting lenses may be permitted). It could also help if you have some flying experience when applying. Training takes place at an approved training school, starting with 13 months of intensive instruction in technical subjects in a residential college environment. The flight school training, successfully completed, gets you a commercial pilot's licence, instrument rating and radio telephony licence. You then return to the Aer Lingus training school to finish off your training on an aircraft in their fleet. On completion of this, you are a second officer, which makes you eligible to serve as a co-pilot on commuter or European aircraft. (Further information from the Employment Section, Aer Lingus, Dublin Airport).

An alternative is to do a primary degree, or a national cert or diploma in an area such as mechanical engineering, physics or indeed any science or engineering qualification - useful background anyway. .

Once you have trained with Aer Lingus, you have an obligation to work with them for at least seven years; otherwise you must repay a proportion of the training costs.

You could also train as a commercial or private pilot. The recommended age to start flying is between 17 and 25 years of age and the academic requirement is Leaving Cert or equivalent with passes in five/six subjects to include at least a grade C in ordinary maths - and physics, if possible, as one of the other subjects. You must pass a class-two medical exam for private pilot training and a class one for commercial. An informal interview is held to assess personal suitability.

A good idea might be to take an introduction course of 10 hours' basic flight training over two weeks, including an introduction to ground-school subjects: you can count this as part of your pilot training.

The exam for the private-pilot licence is set by the Irish Aviation Authority, which also requires a minimum of 45 hours' flight time. (Some private schools recommend 50.) This exam requires that you attend ground school (generally three to four months) and study air law, theory of flight, meteorology, navigation and human performance.

The commercial pilot licence (CPL/ATPL) takes about 15 to 18 months and you must have completed 200 hours of flight training in single and multi-engine aircraft, as well as related instrument training. You can count hours logged for the introductory course or the private-pilot licence towards this total. You would also need 600 hours of lectures and one-on-one briefs with instructors. Again, you must sit the Irish Aviation Authority exams; to gain a position as a pilot you must have the CPL/ATPL multi-instrument rating.

You could take your training at one of the private centres, such as EuroAer Flight Training School at Waterford Regional Airport (tel: (051) 852636), which has full and part-time courses. Fees are in the region of £35,000 for the commercial-pilot course, £5,500 for private-pilot licence. The introductory week course is £1,000, which may be deducted from the other fee if you proceed.

Aero Club 2000 at Abbeyshrule, Co Longford (tel: (044) 57468) trains for the private licence only, at a cost of £80 per hour with a minimum of 45 hours. While this is expensive, there are career opportunities as co-pilot with a commercial airline. Check that whichever training centre you choose meets new EU regulations.

Q I've been teaching science in Bristol in a second-level school for the past seven years; before that, I worked for six years in Ireland in a job related to science teaching. Would these years be recognised for years of service if I got a job in a second-level school in Ireland? I could not afford to start at the bottom of the salary grades again. - Bristol teacher

AS long as you are a registered teacher in the British system or in any other EU system, you will be recognised here for teaching purposes. Any appropriate teaching service given outside the State may be reckoned for purposes of incremental credit in salary, though not for pension. (However, you may be eligible for payment of a pension from the British scheme.)

Since January 1st, 1985, the maximum number of teaching service years abroad that will be recognised is seven; you must have full-time teacher service in a school which is subject to state inspection. For those with service abroad before June 1st, 1979, up to four years only will be reckonable.

The maximum number of years that can be credited for previous relevant non-teaching work is five - so you'll lose one year here. This five years of service must be recognised by the Department of Education and Science. The type of work that could be recognised includes that in any of the science industries, including food science and research laboratories or institutes. Of course, if these years were in the civil service or in most public-sector employments here, you could apply to have them transferred to the teachers' pension scheme.

Teachers with four years or more full-time training enter the common basic scale at the third point. Adding your seven years' teaching and the five non-teaching years brings you to point 14 on the scale. There are additional allowances for teacher qualifications, such as the H Dip (£273 for a pass or £571 for honours), but only one allowance may be added here. There are various allowances for academic qualifications, such as primary degrees (£851 for a pass or £2,271 for honours) and a master's degree (£1,124 pass or £2,538 for honours); a doctorate being £2,836. Again, you may add only one allowance. Further information from the Department of Education and Science (tel: (01) 873 4700), the Association of Secondary Teachers in Ireland at (tel: (01) 671 9144) or the Teachers Union of Ireland (tel: (01) 492 2588).

Queries can be answered only through this column and not by phone or post. Write to Sile Sheehy, Education & Living, The Irish Times, D'Olier Street, Dublin 2 - or by email to education@irish-times.ie