London Stansted this week welcomed members of The Industry and Parliament Trust (IPT) for a behind the scenes tour of the airport and visit to the airport’s college to meet with students.
IPT members in attendance were Richard Holden MP, Jacob Collier MP, Wera Hobhouse MP and Graeme Downie MP.
During the visit, the team were taken on a tour of the airport’s terminal followed by an airside visit to view Stansted’s airfield and how the airport plans and successfully delivers a 24 hour a day flight operation.
The IPT members then completed the visit with a tour of the airport’s unique on-site college, run in partnership with Harlow College. The college is the UK’s only further education facility based on an airport campus, providing young people with opportunities to learn and gain qualifications across a host of aviation related courses to prepare them for a rewarding career in the sector.
The IPT is an independent, non-lobbying, non-partisan charity that provides a trusted platform of engagement between Parliament and UK business. The IPT is dually supported by cross-party representation of senior parliamentarians on its Board of Trustees, and through the patronage of its industry supporters.
The airport college currently supports over 500 young people each year, and as the airport grows towards 51 million passengers a year over the next two decades, the ambition is for the college to double in size to help provide a pipeline of talent as the number of on-site jobs increases by more than 4,000 to 16,000 in total.
London Stansted’s Head of Corporate Affairs, Jonathan Stock, said:
“We were delighted to welcome members of the IPT to London Stansted and introduce them to how the airport operates. It was also great to share the steps we are taking to develop a pipeline of future talent at the airport’s onsite college, the first of its kind in the country.
“As one of the UK’s busiest airports with ambitious plans to sustainably increase passenger numbers, support economic growth and provide even greater connectivity, we understand how important it is for there to be a strong working relationship between industry and parliament.”
Ben Jones, Parliamentary Affairs Manager, said:
“In partnership with MAG, the Industry and Parliament Trust were delighted to organise a cross-party group visit of MPs to London Stansted Airport.
“Through this educational visit MPs got to better understand the work of the airport, hear about their terminal expansion and visit Stansted Airport College. We would like to thank all MPs who attended and to everyone at MAG for hosting the visit.”
