So it’s that time of your life when you have resolved to become a pilot. Everything seems to have fallen in place; your stars have aligned and your path is defined. Then that dream that you’ve always had: to become an aviator, gets actualized when you receive the news that your dream airline – Kenya Airways – has just announced its quinquennial pilot training ‘ab-initio cadet’ programme.
How do you get there?
Kenya Airways, KQ, has strict requirements for joining its ab initio cadet programme:
- You must be a Kenyan citizen aged 18 and above but not beyond 28 years
- You must have a University degree
- You must have graduated from high school with a minimum mean grade of B (plain) or equivalent
- You must have graduated high school with a minimum mean grade of B (plain) in Mathematics, English and Physics
- You must have a minimum height of 5’4” and a maximum of 6’2”
- You must be a good team player of high integrity
- You must possess strong interpersonal, communication and organizational skills
- You must be medically fit with good eyesight
- You must be able to learn under a very demanding environment.
Application is normally done online, via the airline’s recruitment portal. During application, you will be required to submit your CV, scanned copies of your academic qualifications, and an application letter. Upon successful application, you will receive an email of acknowledgement from HR.
When shortlisted, you will be notified also via email, and tasked to appear at a location specified by the company, most probably their headquarters, on a specific date. They will demand that you carry your national ID card (or passport), your original high school certificate (not your result slip), your original degree certificate (or stamped letter of completion from the university), and a pen for writing.
And on that first day, when you arrive, your documents are first verified, then your height is checked. After everything checks out, you will proceed to the examinations hall, where you will perform the aptitude test: a series of exams picked from basic high school mathematics, physics, chemistry, engineering, among others. These questions are meant to test how fast you can comprehend and respond to technical problems.
After passing this test, you will be summoned on another day to perform the psychometric test, basically an online exam that grades your understanding of the English language.
After this comes the psychomotor test popularly known as PILAPT, also conducted at a later date, during which time you will be put in front of a screen, with a flight control stick, and then you will be tasked to fly a plane through a series of boxes/ rectangles in a simulated event. The main goal here is to test your hand-eye coordination, or, as they say, to check whether you were born to fly.
Once you’ve sailed through this test with flying colours, you will then be scheduled for a vigorous medical check, where all your major body systems will be analyzed. Nobody wants a pilot who gets dizzy due to his fear of heights, or whose pulse rate shoots up into the extremes when faced with blaring sirens in the cockpit. And of course, absolutely nobody will hire a pilot with cocaine in his blood.
As soon as you’re cleared by the aviation doctor, you are summoned before a panel composed of senior pilots, a psychologist, and officers from HR, who get to hear your voice, and observe how you respond to their voice.
Once that’s done successfully, thank God!!
You will receive a letter from Kenya Airways Human Resource department, or an affiliate, confirming the following:
- That you are successful in the ab initio process
- That your training will be sponsored by a Kenya Airways approved bank
- That your training will be conducted for a duration of eighteen months in a Kenya Aiways approved flying school
- That you will receive a monthly stipend for upkeep
- That on successful completion of the ab-initio training programme you will be employed by the airline.
- That in consideration of the company agreeing to guarantee the expenses of the course, you will undertake to execute a training bond
- That you will commence your training on a specific given date
All the best!!
