Ok guys, I give up! You are absolutely right. Ignore these cadet schemes they will not get you in to the likes of BA or Ezy or Monarch or Qatar or DHL or Thomas Cook or Thomsons or Flybe. It is all just an illusion. The 20 people I have just seen start their airline paid TR courses this month, with freshly minted licences don't really exist, it was just made up in a futile attempt to confuse the likes of studi, who has a job with an airline that operates a cadet scheme more to his liking. Also to confuse Doug and Ezy who also have jobs.
The best thing anybody can do is join the ranks of the thousands of other low hour licence holders that populate these forums. They are easy to find.
Obviously my experience over the last 30 years is of little relevance, and the observations are myopic. Clearly they haven't been borne out. Airlines do not recruit from this source. The "holding pool" in the depths of recession, hasn't gone from over a hundred to zero in the last year, despite a steady flow of new entrants.
The training that I have seen, simply fooled me into believing it was good. Those cadets from 15 years ago aren't now 10,000 hour captains (in some cases) holding training and management positions.
I suggest you follow their advice and apply to DLH and Swiss and Air France (good luck with that!) Then come back and report how you got on. Failing that, try BA (careful you don't tell them of your dislike for CTC as it is one of their partners). Give up this silly notion of an airline career for the next ten years and instead apply for a military career. I had mistakenly assumed it wasn't simply a training shop for low cost airlines. Send your cheque for £50 and give Ryanair a go. Lots of people do. Apply for all the "sponsorships" that have been alluded to, as clearly there are a lot of those.
My apologies for confusing reality and observation with "selfish and self-contradicting sales talk" I hope this actual example of self contradiction will somehow make amends. For my selfishness I promise to beat myself with Birch twigs. I hope that most people will have not have been taken in by my obvious deceit.
I would also ask you to mark this post so that it can be revisited in a years time when I will have been proved wrong and the myriads of testimonials to the fact will serve as an atonement for my sins.
In the meantime I will sniff coffee and ready myself for the new intake of cadets who hopefully by October will have 500 hours under their belts and the offer of a contract.