Modular schools and job success

[PiperTyro]

We only get snippets of info on how people going to smaller/modular schools get on with finding airline employment. Do most people from these schools instruct first or do a high proportion get to the RHS 'relatively' quickly? Do many get a speculative type rating?

OATs has a fine marketing departments and it's not hard to hear how their graduates get on, but how do graduates of smaller schools find getting jobs after training?

Yours or friends experiences much appreciated, as would their background, age which route/schools they took and outcome, successful or otherwise.

For the record I am 28, PPL, night, 120 TT and trying to choose where to go next. I have a mortgage I'd like to keep so it's the modular route, part time until CPL training for me.

Thanks in advance.

[no sponsor]

It's tough. From my school many have not found jobs, and those who have done so are in the buy-your-type-rating camp, or have gone through the CTC scheme. Many have returned to their normal (pre-training) work.

[Grass strip basher]

Cor you could hear a pin drop on this one!... given the often vigourous defence of the modular route vs integrated I am somewhat stunned by the lack of ex-modular students willing to share their experiences of gaining a job in the RHS!

Or was all the "modular guys get jobs as well" just marketing hype from the modular firms and those justifying why they have gone down the modular route??.... hmmmm

I know there are successful modular folks out there (Ham Phisted etc) but is it really as bad as no sponsor says!

[FlyingForFun]

Followed the modular course, and got the job I want within a couple of months of finishing training.

Ok, so the job I want is instructing, for now at least. But I certainly wouldn't go integrated if I had to do the same thing again. Of the other instructors at my school, a couple have recently been offered jobs within the same company flying the King Air, and one flying the Citation. All, as far as I know (but I may be wrong for some of them) did a modular course, except for one who did an integrated course at Oxford and is still instructing but looking for a jet job.

FFF
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[woof]

At the risk of opening the large can of worms called, "Oxford versus the rest of the world", I reckon at the end of the day it is all about marketing yourself!

The qualification is the same, it's the networking that's different.

Good qualification+ good contacts+ good CV + nice suit (not for Easyjet) = Good chance of getting a job.


At least I blo*dy hope so anyway:E

[What's a Girdler]

This is exactly the same as getting any 'big' career type job, for instance a Graduate job, after leaving Uni through the 'Milkround'. It is regardless of where you trained and how you got it, but all about you!!

IMHO Flying is no different, carries exactly the same type of competition, and interview techniques etc etc; I can remember it took me a year to find a Grad job after leaving uni.

On this note please can we now stop the endless good versus evil bowts on Pprune, and get on with the job in hand of getting the licences involved, no matter how or where we do it.

People I know, who have been on all types of courses and all types of school, large or small, are getting interviews all over the place. Once you have an interview it's down to you not how or where you trained.

[PiperTyro]

Thanks for the comments so far.

I purposely didn't mention the 'I' word for fear of starting the usual debate, other current threads deal with that just fine. In fact the idea was this thread is nothing to do with the 'other' route to F/ATPL.

It's about how modular students get on in the job market. What do they do after graduation? I completely agree it's down to the individual at the end of the day but the question still stands.

How are modular graduates getting on? Personal experiences welcome.

Thanks.

[G SXTY]

Don’t take this the wrong way, but part of the reason you haven’t had many positive responses is that those who have made it are too busy flying to sit down and post on Pprune.

I know several people who used to be regulars here, but now they are in the right hand seat they simply don’t have the time to enter into long ‘modular versus integrated’ debates. To be blunt, this forum has served its purpose by helping with advice and support while they were training and looking for their first job – now they have it, there isn’t much point in hanging round here all day.

For what it’s worth, I can think of at least four people who were either CAA ‘self-improvers’ or took the JAA modular route. Three were PPL instructors, one of whom went to Astraeus, another joined Britannia, and the third is flying turboprops around the Caribbean. The other guy went straight to BACX.

I know one person who went integrated, didn’t have a sniff of a job for over two years, then joined the CTC ATP scheme and flew for Monarch. He then landed a job with BA, through his own efforts, without any assistance from CTC.

So there’s five success stories, none of whom you’ll read about on ‘wannabes’. Sad, but there it is. Don’t be put off just because people aren’t shouting their good news from the rooftops – enough ability and determination and you’ll make it in the end, whichever way you get your licence.

[Send Clowns]

Tyro

The information is just not available. Some people stay in touch, others don't. If we did keep the information it would be skewed by the fact that some that keep in touch have been coming back for informal help in finding work.

So the answer is that nobody knows!

[African Drunk]

Our figures at our modular FTO are 100 IR's since last jan
25 in 737's BMI baby/Ryanair/Air Asia etc
1 in 757 Astareus
1 in 747 Singapore
9 in A320 Easyjet etc
2 in A300 Gulf air
5 in ATR's Aer Arann /Air wales etc
6 in Dash 8 FlyBE etc
7 in Corporate
10+ in other airline jobs
15+ instructing
3 working for us.
Thats only the ones I know about not everyone keeps in touch.

[Number Cruncher]

AD, impressive figures and encouraging for all us on the verge of qualification!

So, did most pay for a rating or not?

What school are you at as i think i wanna do my CPL/IR there!

Nice one

[African Drunk]

Number Cruncher

Most of the 737 guys paid for rating but everyone who joins those companies pays modular or intergrated.

It doesn't matter which school as we didn't get them their jobs they got there themselves. But my point is it is not doom and gloom if your modular, the guys/gals are getting jobs.

I think modular guys do take longer than intergrated students to get jobs by about 6 months. I can not back that up by facts just a feeling.

[BillieBob]

given the often vigourous defence of the modular route vs integrated I am somewhat stunned by the lack of ex-modular students willing to share their experiences of gaining a job in the RHS! I guess they must be too busy flying their 737/A320/GIV/C560/etc. to be bothered with such mundane things as Pprune

[monkeyboy]

Hi guys and girls. As G-SXTY (hi mate!) said in his post, there used to be quite a few modulars who posted on here regularly and now that we've found jobs we just don't have as much time as we used to have!

For the record, I did the modular route starting in 2000 by doing my PPL and IMC. I then did the usual buzzing around for a year or two flying friends and family around building up my P1 time.

In 2002 I started my ATPLs (urrrghhhh) with Oxford through the distance learning method.

In 2003 the fun really started as I spent a month constructively hour-building in Florida (the Americans couldn't understand why we always refused to take a GPS-equipped a/c in favour of a steam-driven 152) and then immediately came back to the UK to do the CPL and IR back to back at Oxford.

After leaving Oxford, I did some dispatching t'up North for six months and then finally got the break in 2004 with BACX on the Dash 8 :8. Eleven months on I'm about to get my hands on a slippery Barbie jet, the ERJ145. Strangely enough, the majority of the FOs on the Dash are modular. Hurrah!

So, there you go. Four years from start to finish. It's a long old slog and you've got to be prepared to give up a lot of things in your quest but once you achieve that first job you'll be able to look back and smile at all the crap you went through. :D

Without also wanting to relight the Oxford vs .... fire, there was no difference in the training received by integrated or modular students. The instructors taught both.

The only difference I did find was how much support you got from Oxford afterwards once you were looking for a job. I got the impression the guys who had paid almost 30,000 UKP more were ever so slighly ;) favoured.

And finally, I chose Oxford because at the time it looked good on the CV. I'm not so sure that's the case anymore.

Good Luck!

MB

[moku]

5 out of the 6 that have so far completed all the training from the Modular School that I went to are now employed by Airlines.
Most of us had jobs within 6 months of completion.

Moku.