Our staff to work across healthcare, grocery, retail and customer service
In addition to its highly skilled people being approached to volunteer at the new NHS Nightingale field hospital, Virgin Atlantic is working with organisations in healthcare, grocery, retail and customer service to secure temporary and voluntary employment opportunities for its people
With the UK advising against all but essential travel and many countries shutting borders, customer demand for air travel is at an all-time low, and many Virgin Atlantic employees have been furloughed for the months of April and May in accordance with the government’s Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme. However, other sectors continue to operate with unprecedented demand.
To highlight temporary and voluntary opportunities to staff, while supporting other organisations during this time of crisis, Virgin Atlantic is working with the following organisations:
London Ambulance Service - The London Ambulance service is looking for paid and volunteering opportunities available across London for call handler roles and non-emergency ambulance assistance roles available
Epsom Hospital Carshalton - The NHS is looking for volunteers from our engineering community to support it building essential equipment in preparation for Covid-19 in the coming weeks.
NHS Volunteer Responders - The NHS Volunteer Responders is a new group that will carry out simple, non-medical tasks to support people in England who are self-isolating because of specific health conditions. The NHS is looking for fit and healthy people to support with simple but vital tasks including driving people to and from hospital, delivering food and medication, and telephone befriending
NHS Nightingale hospital at London’s ExCel Centre - The UK government is currently in the process of building NHS Nightingale Hospital at London’s ExCel Centre to address the pressing need for additional critical care facilities for people with Covid-19. Set to employ 18,000 medical staff and volunteers caring for 4000 patients, NHS Nightingale is an incredible initiative which will save lives and support the rest of our challenged health service, and the NHS is looking for volunteers to help staff the hospital once it’s up and running
Tesco, Morrisons, Iceland, Lidl, Asda, Waitrose, The Co-operative and Ocado – With pressure on retail at an all time high, retail giants are offering paid opportunities for people to help instore replenishing stock and in customer service as as well as well as drivers.
Corneel Koster, Chief Customer Officer at Virgin Atlantic commented, “We are very grateful to the NHS for everything they are doing in extremely challenging circumstances and we’re committed to doing all we can to support the national effort against the rapid acceleration of Covid-19”
“We are very proud of our highly skilled people at Virgin Atlantic and since the Government’s Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme was announced, we have been inundated with our people looking to help other organisations at this time of crisis.”
“Many organisations have approached us with opportunities, both paid and voluntary, as they recognise the value and experience our people can bring.”
Cabin crew undergo six weeks training as well as a yearly refresher which includes medical and fire safety training and these skills make them invaluable to organisations such as the London Ambulance Service and the NHS whilst our ground teams, with their customer service experience can easily transfer their skills to retail, charity and customer service.