Leo Oxford

I founded my landscaping company ‘Dorset Services' the day I turned 14; the goal, to raise the finance necessary to pay for my ATPL and realise my dream of becoming an airline pilot.

I gained great communication skills through constant contact with clients, faced constant failures and stressful situations such as absenteeism all whilst focusing on school work which, at times, I found incredibly difficult. However, I remained resilient during these tough times, resulting in A’s & A*’s in subjects like Maths & Physics GCSE.

During the summer of 2023 I hired 11 people aged 16-30 to help me cope with the high workload.

I have saved as much profit as I can from this business, taught myself how to complete tax forms and manage accounts all in order to get as close as I can to the huge amount of money required to pay for my ATPL. However, I am still a long way away from being able to make a start in training.

Since age 7 I have wanted to become an airline pilot; when the first opportunity to achieve this arose, I grabbed it with both hands.

I worked incredibly hard through 4 rounds of application with over 1,200 applicants all competing for only one position.

I managed to make it to the final 10 candidates shortlisted for the position by persistently performing whilst remaining calm and collected across both interviews with the company director and staff.

This is one of my greatest accomplishments due to being one of the youngest candidates at 17 against people aged 25 and over with degrees and PPL’s; as well as it being my first formal interview.

I immediately discovered the reason for not being selected and began to study the ‘Oxford Aviation Academy Principles Of Flight’ textbook; the focus, to gain ATPL theory knowledge so that I could improve my Maths & Physics scores for future pilot applications with airlines such as yourselves, TUI.