Cabin crew told: ‘retrain as carers and nurses’

‘It may not be their dream job for the rest of their lives,’ Therese Coffey conceded

Flight attendants told to retrain

Cabin crew who have lost their jobs because of the collapse in aviation should retrain as carers and nurses, the work and pensions secretary has said.

Therese Coffey told The Spectator that the thousands of men and women who have been made redundant by British Airways, easyJet and other airlines should switch careers.

“I want to encourage them to perhaps go into teaching or go to college and to be the people who train the next lot of people who are going to do those jobs,” she said.

“How do we help draw out of them the transferable skills that they have, and that could be working in social care?”

Ms Coffey also backed the prime minister’s call for female cabin crew to retrain as nurses.

“I’m sure other cabin crew as well who are male could make equally good nurses. It’s just whether or not people want that as a complete lifestyle change.

“It may not be their dream job for the rest of their lives. But it may well be very useful: they get more money coming in than if they’re on benefits and it can also provide something really valuable and rewarding.”

The minister’s call came as BA operated its final Boeing 747 departures from Heathrow – and on the day that easyJet repeated its call for government support and blamed travel restrictions for causing a collapse in consumer confidence.

A senior member of British Airways cabin crew who was made redundant recently said that retraining was not a viable option for many airline staff.

“Many of us that were made redundant were of a later age with financial responsibilities, so therefore we’re unable to take unpaid time out to retrain,” she said.

Many of the cabin crew made redundant by British Airways were members of the Unite union.

Unite’s national officer for civil air transport, Oliver Richardson, said: “Therese Coffey’s comments are just crass. They are as insensitive as they are ill informed and only serve to show how out of touch government is. 

“Aviation workers throughout the UK are worried sick about their future and quite literally don't know if they'll have a job next week. Tens of thousands of aviation workers have already lost their jobs.

“Her focus as minister of work should be on saving as many jobs as possible, not throwing in the towel on a vitally important sector of the economy. 

“The real problem is that the aviation industry is still waiting for the support package promised by the chancellor seven months ago. It is this delay and the failure to echo the support that other countries have provided for their aviation sectors that is seeing UK jobs go at an alarming rate."