British Women Pilots Association Scholarships Open Next Month

Each year, the British Women Pilots' Association (BWPA) makes a number of awards and scholarships to recognise the achievements of women in aviation and support them in further flying endeavours. The 2023 scholarships will open in early September, and winners will be formally congratulated at BWPA’s annual festive lunch and awards ceremony in December.

The BWPA scholarships programme has seen overwhelming success in recent years, growing from seven scholarships awarded in 2019 to 23 scholarships offered in 2022. To ensure that the programme can continue to offer the greatest benefits to members and sponsors, whilst also recognising that the BWPA is entirely run by volunteers, earlier this year the BWPA committee undertook a strategic review of the programme and will launch a new and improved scholarships programme.

BWPA will be offering a number of financial scholarships valued at £2000 each. These will be open to women of any age and background and are for any type of flying. The awards will help scholarship winners in various ways, including gaining their first qualifications, building upon existing qualifications, or working towards a first paid flying job. The eleven awards recognise excellence in a wide range of areas from navigation to photography. There are also special awards, for example acknowledging achievements in gliding, personal accomplishment or career goals.

The Light Aircraft Association (LAA) is a new scholarship sponsor this year, and SkyDemon, who sponsored two BWPA scholarships in 2022, have generously agreed to sponsor three scholarships in 2023.