Heathrow has partnered with The Scout Association to launch an Aviation Skills Activity Badge for the many Scouts and Explorers across the UK interested in aviation.

Heathrow graduates and the Scouts have worked together to create two Aviation Skills activity packs to help Scouts and Explorers achieve the badge whilst learning the importance and responsibilities of aviation in a fun and engaging way. Available from today, the packs contain a variety of information including; how an aircraft flies, navigation maps and how to marshal an aircraft. The packs will be available for download for any scouts across the country who would like to take part.

The idea came from graduates of the Heathrow Graduate Training Programme who were working towards their Duke of Edinburgh Gold Award. For the volunteering module, the group chose to create the badge and worked closely with a variety of Heathrow employees as well as linking closely with local Scouts groups to understand which areas of aviation they might be most interested in learning about.

Heathrow, which supports local community skills development, agreed to sponsor the badge to encourage young people to engage in fun activities outside of formal education.

As well as launching the resource packs, the graduates have volunteered to lead evening activity sessions with local Scouts groups to show them the new version of the badge and help them understand the broad range of aviation jobs and skills available to them, engaging local communities around Heathrow. Heathrow connects 72 million passengers a year to 180 destinations. With 114,000 jobs at the airport, Scouts can learn about the type of roles staff have and opportunities they might like to pursue in future.

Jack Andrews, a Heathrow graduate, 22, says ‘As someone completely new to the world of aviation, working to create this Scouts badge has given me a fantastic appreciation of what Heathrow does. I’m really proud of what we’ve achieved and looking forward to working with local young people to share our newfound knowledge.’

Simon Carter, Assistant Director for the Scout Association, said “We value this partnership with Heathrow – working with key community focused businesses like this allows us to reach out and change the lives of even more young women and young men in many parts of the UK.”