About Us

Company background/History

For many years Air Service Training (previously Airwork Services Training) was a member of the British & Commonwealth group of companies responsible to the main Company Board via Airwork Limited at Hurn. After a management buy-out in 1988 the Bricom Group of Companies were formed and AST became responsible to the main Board via Bristow Helicopters Limited. In November 1991, as a result of another management buy-out Air Service Training Limited became a wholly owned subsidiary of the Bristow Helicopter Group Limited. With the closure of the AST Flying college, the Aeronautical Engineering College became a wholly owned subsidiary of Perth College in September 1996, when the newly formed company name was changed to Air Service Training (Engineering) Limited.

The Aeronautical Engineering College opened in 1934 at Hamble in Hampshire and operated there until 1960, when it moved to the present venue. During its total period of operation it has trained over 12,000 engineers from 150 countries.

For many years the core business of the Aeronautical Engineering College has been Approved (ARB/CAA/JAA./EASA) training of aeronautical maintenance engineers in all categories.

Capabilities

AST was amongst the first schools to receive JAR-147 approval to deliver and assess the JAR-66 Ab-Initio course. Since that time it has achieved approval under the EASA IR Part 147 regulations and has been the preferred training provider of major national and international companies, such as:

Additionally, AST has been the preferred training provider for aircraft engineer licensing for several military and governmental organisations, including:

In addition to the approved courses designed to meet the requirements of engineer licensing, AST has also provided bespoke training to meet the training needs of individuals and organisations. This training is designed using a 5 tier training needs analysis process and has produced many successful programmes, such as:

In partnership with Perth College, AST delivers a range of academic courses in aeronautical engineering, these are offered at National Qualification, Higher National Certificate and Higher National Diploma level in Aeronautical Engineering, and a BSc degree in aircraft maintenance.