Flyer show, FTOs and cash

[half full]

Ok,

looking at the offerings on the table at the show today, something has occured to me and I want to check whether I'm missing something.

In talking to the schools that offer an integrated 'product' it's clear that they all have a similar teaching schedule, and a similar payment schedule. Generalising wildly, each of them puts its students through groundschool early in the programme, if not at the outset. Each of them also has a hefty booking fee, followed by a series of staged payments of not insignificant amounts of money.

By about week 25 (ish) a student can expect to have paid the majority of the cost of their training - say £35,000 - and have received training that is commercially available for less than 5K residentially.

Now, I understand that these are profit-making companies but I feel this is a bit cheeky and, as someone who runs a tight margin business, would have concerns that the students are carrying significant risk in this transaction.

So what am I missing?

cheers,

HF.

[Jinkster]

See post:

What did anyone think of the professional pilot show today?

[half full]

Erm, why?

It was all very glossy, but marketing is marketing - I do it for a living - and cold hard cash has a reality that is a bit more telling when you're looking to part with upwards of 40K to place yourself in a very crowded job market.

cheers,

HF :\

[half full]

Ok, let me ask the question another way:

What do I get for the extra cash? In the opinion of PPRuNers, is the training track record that some employers talk of important enough to warrant the extra investment, or would I be better off spoiling my wife a little with the money I save in doing a modular course?

cheers,

HF

[daw]

A cynical answer is that by front loading the payment schedules then they are forcing you to stay for the entire course and not take your wallet elsewhere should you decide that their teaching style etc is not for you. Hence one of the many reasons why so many of us go for modular. Now do yourself a favour and click the button top right. There is a huge huge huge amount of information available on the modular route, the whys and wherefores and the endless debates over which route gives you the best chances of getting a job at the end. Also check out the sticky at the top of this forum.

[ikea]

you should never pay all up-front, never ever ever, if you are in a forign country you dont have a leg to stand on, and you money is gone. pay-as-you-go, may be slightly more expensive, but its safer-

i knew this before, but when i was at Flyer LHR in March, some FTO reps. told me never to pay upfront either.