New ServiceIQ Gateway Scholar Defies Gravity

Tia Warwick from Oxford in Canterbury is living proof that a ServiceIQ Gateway programme gives secondary students the grounding they need to lift-off into a career they’re passionate about.

Tia Warwick, ServiceIQ Aviation Gateway graduate and Scholarship winner gets the feel of a Supermarine Spitfire replica.

At only 16 years-old, Tia is earning admiration and congratulations for completing the ServiceIQ Aviation Gateway programme and being awarded the coveted ServiceIQ Flying NZ Flight Training Scholarship 2019.

Tia’s first flight with Air Cadets – 88 Squadron Rangiora was life changing.

“I knew right then and there that flying was my passion and my future career. This has been crystalised by my aviation studies with the ServiceIQ Gateway programme and my weekly evening classes with our instructor Des Lines. I also have a really helpful mentor in Air New Zealand’s Janelle Rouse,” says Tia.

Tia’s parents have been equally supportive and encouraged her to overcome her fear of heights to take that first flight.

Since then, she’s clocked-up 21 hours of flight training.

But learning to fly is an expensive pursuit and Tia is funding her time in the sky by doing chores around the house and working at a local book shop.

The ServiceIQ Flying NZ Flight Training Scholarship 2019 gives her $2,000 of flight training delivered by the Canterbury Aero Club. The funds are going to be very handy especially as Tia is aiming to achieve her private pilot’s licence next year.

Further on her horizon is a Bachelor of Aviation at Massey University and afterwards the sky is the limit.

“I would like to work for the Flying Doctors in Australia. I love helping people and this would combine my passion for flying and giving back to others. I would also like to apply for a job with a commercial airline, hopefully Air New Zealand.”

Tia is realistic and knows objectives do change in life, but she’s absolutely clear that flying will always be part of her future.

“Flying defies gravity, we were not born or created to fly, yet our ancestors found a way to achieve the seemingly impossible. This is what I think about when I fly. When I’m in the cockpit it’s just me, the views and the plane. For me, being in a plane is my passion, it represents freedom, history and opportunity.”

ServiceIQ’s Aviation Gateway programme is extremely popular with students keen to discover exciting roles and the real chance to kick-start a career in the fast-moving industry.

As Industry Training Organisation for the aviation industry, ServiceIQ sets the standards and develops on-job qualification training programmes and apprenticeships for a huge range of roles for men and women - from aircraft engineers, pilots, air traffic controllers, flight attendants, and check-in agents to aircraft loaders, aircraft cleaners, aeronautical store keepers, aircraft maintenance engineers, airport operations staff and many more.

ENDS

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