A new course at our Paisley campus has had staggering achievement rates with 91% of the successful students being offered employment with Swissport at Glasgow airport.   

The Award Airport Services and Ground Operations course, which is delivered over just 5 days  from West College Scotland’s Paisley Campus, trains students in airport services and ground handling, including ticketing, seating methods, check in and boarding requirements. 

Carol Gaffney, Curriculum and Quality Leader at the College’s Paisley campus explains how West College Scotland is part of the Swissport Academy of Colleges.  She says, ‘This particular fast track course offers a direct link to employment with Swissport at Glasgow Airport and this cohort is just one example of the many students that have successfully  gained employment over the past few years. Due to this success, the College aims to grow our portfolio of courses to continue to provide a strong pool of instantly employable candidates to the Academy.’ 

Student Rangeen Chamosaid, 30 from Clydebank said, ‘I applied for the Award in Airport Services & Ground Operations and was invited to an induction to see what was involved. I really enjoyed the short course and the welcoming atmosphere at West College Scotland. I hadn’t studied for a long time, but I need not have worried as the tutors were easy to talk to and alleviated any concerns I had. They were all so knowledgeable! I would recommend this course to anyone.’ 

Allison Logan, Trainer from Swissport UK said ‘This course has helped the cohort immensely with obtaining employment with us as they had prior knowledge of what was expected of them in their role and a sound knowledge of the basic functions that they would be performing on a day to day basis.’ 

Carol added, ‘The Swissport commercial course was  a great success, the group were all very hard working, determined to succeed and a pleasure to teach and had a wide range of skills and attributes between them.

We are delighted that so many of them are now finding their way into the exciting world of work at the airport and employment by Swissport the leading global ground handling and cargo provider.’ 

The Swissport Academy is an exciting concept in the UK offering a number of colleges great benefits to lecturers and students. As a company Swissport employs over 60,000 people worldwide in hundreds of different job roles. In terms of employment opportunities at Swissport Glasgow, they recruit temporary staff every summer; for passenger services and dispatch roles, this can equate to 120 people. 

Allison added, ‘We are sure all those who have been offered employment will be hard working, conscientious and will work well as part of the team here at Glasgow.’