Brooklands College students will fly in the face of the ordinary after the college was chosen as the training partner for Virgin Atlantic.

The college’s engineering department, based at its Weybridge campus, was chosen to team up with the airline from this September, thanks to its history of providing skilled young people to the aviation industry.

The college, which has its own training facilities, complete with its own aircraft hangar and aeroplane, also has a number of staff who worked in aerospace engineering before sharing their skills through teaching.

Selvin Smith, development programmes officer at Virgin Atlantic, said: “Of all the colleges in the south east, Brooklands demonstrated a real sense of passion for aviation engineering, and along with their great facilities, made the choice easy.

“The introduction of the 787-9 marks an exciting time for our engineers and we look forward to finding some future talent to be a part of this through Brooklands College.”

Students studying for a BTec Diploma in aeronautical engineering will benefit from the partnership, with visits from the transatlantic airline.

Jon Nicholls, assistant head of engineering at Brooklands College, said: “It’s great to know that our best students could then have the possibility to complete their training with the airline.”

To find out more about the course, visit brooklands.ac.uk.