"We are looking for adventurous people, " explained Eddie Russell, recruitment director at PRI. "And we are looking for people who are prepared to travel, and who are not afraid to live abroad.

So we don't want people who say that they have to be in Ireland from time to time, because they are not demonstrating the sort of commitment required for our programme."

Despite the long time spent away from home, PRI is finding no shortage of candidates, from diverse backgrounds, to fill the places on the course.

Since its establishment in the last few years, the programme has been made up of welders, chefs, computer science graduates, a geneticist, people with a banking background and a panel beater . . . to name but a few.

"The common denominator between these people is that they all really wanted to become a pilot, " said Russell.

"We can tell immediately the people who just have a vague notion about learning to fly, just as we can tell the people who really want it, and are driven to become pilots. Some people want to get into it just for the glamour, just to work in Ireland for Aer Lingus or Ryanair . . . but we don't feel that these are suitable candidates for our programme, because their parameters are too rigid. They don't come to us with a realistic approach to learning to fly."

Obviously, the first characteristic that students at PRI need to display is a willingness to spend at least two, and more often than not three, years in Canada. These, according to Russell, will be pilots, rather than those who feel that they will be back in Ireland within a year. Further down the list of attributes is an aptitude for English and Mathematics . . . but Eddie Russell is keen to stress that the academic requirements are very much secondary for a career as a pilot.

"There is a myth that exists which suggests that pilots need to be very successful academically, " he said. "We are not looking for people with honours physics, or people with science degrees. Just people with decent English and Maths skills."

PRI is also keen to attract more female candidates to its course . . . and there is no better place for women to learn to fly than the country in which the Algonquin Flight Centre is based.

"Canada actually has a very high ratio of female pilots, " said Russell. "In fact, since the school opened about 20 years ago, around 40% of the instructors have been female pilots. It's almost a cliche that Canada has so many women pilots, but there is a real historical context for it . . . during the Second World War, most of the Allied pilots trained in Canada, and many of the instructors then were female."

The fact that so many Irish people have enjoyed the training provided by PRI Academy is testament to the schools ethos and quality. Training for at least two years in Canada is a huge commitment, but it also represents a significant opportunity not only to learn to fly, but to do so in a new environment that is entirely geared at training the pilots of the future.