High life open for keen graduates - graduate jobs

Graduates may want to consider reaching for the sky with a career as a flight attendant.

And they would not be alone in choosing this career path as Virgin Atlantic said that a growing number of its cabin crew are now comprised of people from a wide range of professions.

The airline said among the professionals to have been retrained as flight attendants are bankers, tax inspectors and social workers.

It cites the economic downturn and soaring unemployment as reasons for the trend but also said that people were keen to sample a new lifestyle.

Virgin Atlantic's Anna Catchpole said: "The economic downturn has encouraged many professional people to re-examine the things they once thought were important.

"With so much uncertainty, people want to live for the moment, so a nine to five existence to pay for a mortgage and a car no longer holds much attraction.

"Big companies are always urging employees to indulge in blue sky thinking, and now hundreds of executives are literally putting that philosophy into practice."

Copyright Press Association 2011