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Cotswold Airport’s annual Aviation Scholarships have been running since 2007, giving young aviation enthusiasts the opportunity to dip their toe into all aspects of the world of aviation. Founded by Ronan Harvey, the program is designed to introduce students to all aspects of the industry, from design, manufacturing, maintenance, airport support and even the opportunity to get into the air. Below are a few comments from previous alumni.

Nitish – 2018 – Completing the Cotswold Airport Aviation Scholarship in 2018 opened many doors for me in my career. The programme gave me early exposure to flying, engineering and the breadth of opportunities within the aviation industry, helping me secure a place on Marshall Aerospace’s four-year Aerospace Engineering Degree Apprenticeship. Alongside gaining hands-on experience across military aircraft maintenance, systems engineering, and advanced manufacturing, I went on to graduate with a First-Class Honours degree in Aerospace Engineering. I have since completed an Air League Flying Scholarship and now work as a consultant project manager supporting major aviation infrastructure programmes, including the third runway expansion at Heathrow. The exposure, confidence and industry insight gained by the Cotswold Airport Scholarship were key to shaping my career, and I would strongly recommend it to anyone considering a career in aviation.

 

Devon – 2025 – The scholarship helped me over come my extreme fear of heights and gave me an opportunity of a lifetime, when I fell in love with aviation, I never thought I will be doing an aviation scholarship and taking control of aircraft’s, I enjoyed every day.

 

Jack – 2018 – Since participating in the scholarship, I have joined the RAF as an Aircraft Technician and am currently in my third year at RAF Marham, working on the F35B. The scholarship helped show me various roles within flying that I wasn’t entirely aware of. For example, my dream was always to be a pilot and nothing else ever crossed my mind. Having tours of GKN Aerospace as well as speaking to personnel in different roles at RAF Brize Norton opened my eyes to other possibilities and ways I can still work on/ around aircraft without necessarily flying them. 

Since joining the RAF I have been able to learn several skills that can help me in my personal life fixing bikes and cars, as well as make the most of the opportunities available through the job. Whether it be working of 5^th generation aircraft,  spending a couple of months in and around Ukrainians on Op Interflex or just recently coming back from Op Highmast spending 8 months at sea, the experiences I’ve had over the past 4 years in the RAF more than likely wouldn’t have been possible if I hadn’t participated in the scholarship. 

 

Rosie – 2024 – The scholarship was an amazing opportunity to learn more about aviation – unparalleled to anything I have seen elsewhere.

I learnt hands on the basics of flying helicopters and fixed wing aircraft. Through visits at Vertical Aerospace, ASI, and ZeroAvia, I considered practically the lifecycle of aircraft development from initial testing to dismantling and recycling. Some of my takeaways from this have formed a key part of my personal statement and CV allowing me to apply for mechanical engineering at university and related degree apprenticeships with confidence. I hope to be able to apply this to work in sustainable aircraft development in the future.

I would 100% recommend the scholarship to anyone hoping to apply – not only can you learn a huge amount, but it is really good fun as well!

 

Priya – 2025 – The scholarship helped shape my future career plans, mainly through my flying lessons which reinforced my career path but also through the various talks from external companies. For example, going into the scholarship, I was solely set on becoming a commercial pilot but post-scholarship I am now considering joining the RAF following a talk delivered at the scholarship. I would recommend the scholarship to anyone aspiring an aviation-based future and am still so grateful for the opportunity to do it!

 

Mia – 2019 – I took part in the Cotswold Airport Scholarship in summer 2019 after I heard about it online. To this date I still believe it was one of the best summer experiences I’ve ever had, I met a fantastic group of people and learnt a lot of valuable life lessons. I now have a career in defence after studying at university and I believe that the scholarship did help my application especially as I was awarded the best scholar. Having the opportunity to fly and explore the different areas of aviation is something I would recommend to anyone who is interested in a potential career in aviation. 

 

Harry – 2019 – So since the scholarship I ended up getting a job as a Fleet Support Technician and stock controller at an airline academy, i got to work airside along with the engineers to order parts and maintain stock levels to keep the fleet airborne with as little downtime as possible.

Since then, i have started my helicopter flight training, something i am enjoying very much alongside my new job role in the export industry.

the job allows me to be flexible to fly during the week to keep progress smooth through my course. It was mainly thanks to my quick 30-minute trial lesson on the Cotswold scholarship that led me to want to pursue this as a career.

Initially i did try for the RAF and achieved top marks on all the aptitude assessments however after finding out the waiting list was nearly 5 years just to begin training i decided to fly privately instead.

I am currently about 15 hours into my course and ready to go solo, so excited to take the next step.

 

Nancy – 2023 – The scholarship helped me discover the incredible breadth of the aviation industry, and as an aspiring pilot, it was important to me to understand all the different factors that contributed to the life of an aircraft. As well as flying, I learnt about ground school, air traffic control, aviation firefighting, new sustainable developments in aviation, ASI, and much else. This really reinforced to me how there was so much more to being a pilot and therefore a part of the aviation industry than simply learning how to fly. Currently, I am in my final year at school, yet the scholarship gave me the confidence and the motivation to pursue a different scholarship with the British Army, which I attained over the summer, with a view to training with them as a pilot after university.