Oxford Aviation, a Warning!

[king rooney]

The following is a quote from someone I met who graduated from OAT a couple of years ago and has been working as an FI since; when I asked him whether or not it was true that OAT give you help to get a job/ recommend u for airlines as they so claim, his response was:

"its bollocks, once you leave there they don´t give a ****."

So my advice to anyone who is considering going there is to judge the school purely on its merits as a flying school, not because you reckon you might stand a better chance of getting a job through their "connections".
If you still think its worth the money then fair dos, but going to Oxford will NOT give you a better chance of getting an airline job after, the proof is quoted above straight from the horses mouth.

[Blinkz]

what a suprising post rooney, totally unlike you :confused: I thought you liked oat? :rolleyes:

[Aerospace101]

What is it with you and OAT?! :eek:

Youve never been through there so why are you slagging them off??

I think your approach to them on these forums is totally unprofessional.

In fact the unscrupulous may use it to elicit certain reactions.

[scroggs]

Reading through your posting history, Rooney, you do appear to be running a one-man anti-OAT campaign. May we ask why you have this particular vocation?

Scroggs

[king rooney]

I feel it is my duty to attempt to combat the spin/ marketing tactics used by OAT to fleece poor young hopefuls, desperate to take any measure, no, matter what the cost to get themselves flying a plane professionally.

In the capitalist world we live in today, where adverts invade our general pricacy thousands of times a day and distort our view of the world, it is impotant to attempt to provide a foil or a reality check in the face of such bombardment.

My aim is not to degrade OAT or its students as I have, as people say, never been there and only met a handful of its students here and there. I imagine that OAT does provide quality training and that its graduates are in general highly able pilots. It is in fact to attempt to prevent young wannabes from being sucked in by their marketing tactics and to make them think about whether they are choosing Oxford for the right reasons.
If I can prevent one fledgling aviator from being fleeced and then becoming disilousioned when things do not turn out as they were promised, then I have been sucessful.

[Maude Charlee]

Not entirely true Rooney.

For those with amnesia, a couple of years ago the employment market was just about as bad as it could possibly be. What assistance would you expect OAT to be able to give at the time? Nor is it surprising that when the market did pick up, OAT concentrated their efforts on current grads rather than guys who left some time ago.

However, that said, at the time OAT also had a career development officer who was not entirely suited to this purpose at the best of times, and from personal experience I found him a little out of touch with reality and particularly uninterested in assisting any one individual.

Since then, things have changed greatly, and the school is presently doing a pretty decent job of placing grads with airlines. The career development officer has changed and is now a thoroughly decent bloke, and the school has put a huge amount of time and effort into making this a proper department rather than what it previously had been.

As for your nonsense about them not finding anyone work, I was fortunate in finding my present job as a direct result of OAT's selection board. Contrary to what your bitter FI friend may say, I left late summer 2002 and OAT did give a sh1t about my employment position, despite the fact I was not a recent grad. Either he simply doesn't meet the selection criteria put forward for the vacancies that do come up through OAT, or he can't be bothered to get off his lazy ass and get down there to remind them he's still alive. Perhaps just as well he's stilll a FI.

[stue]

Rooney,

as a one man band to shut down OAT, i take my hat off to you. You most certainly persevere.

Thank you for your warning, your words are marked.

However, i think that you should look at your own school first and sort that little problem out. ;) at least OAT arnt doing anything dangerous? Dont get me wrong though, its good to practice crosswind landings:ok:

[Globalwarning]

Very true- door open all the chat - Pay money- Door Closed- Don't rock the boat son.

Thank God that fellow Ian Moxam is gone, his Karma must be shot to sh!t

[A330 Biggles]

KR's method of choosing a training provider clearly isnt great, just look at his recent post on crosswind landings!!

As for OAT doing nothing for there students. . . i know one person who had interviews with BA, BA Citiexpress and has now got a job with Jet2, all his oppertunitys came down to OATs contacts.

I'd ignore anything KR has to say about OAT, if anyones considering it go and have a look for yourself.

330

[king rooney]

Yeh yeh, Biggles 1 Rooney 0 re the cw landings.
Still, if I do ditch my FTO in the near future I ve only spent a couple of grand on em already and still got a lot of decent experience out of it. Better than spending 60 grand and then realising uve made a bad decision.

[stue]

Good point mate. Is there only the one school at Hawarden? Hows about liverpool or somewhere like that?

[king rooney]

Have hear good things about raven air, is there one in Wigan, that´s not too far from Chester?

[stue]

errrrrrrrr? sorry mate, :p :p :p :p :p

I live in wigan, i fly from Blackpool. Wigan doesnt have an airfield! just a dam good football team!;)

[king rooney]

its got a pier though yeh?

[stue]

yeah! haw can a town no where near the sea have i pier?? I ask ya?? Its not that good to be honest, got a decent pub near it though.

As for revenair, i dont know, but i have heard some good talk about them. Maybe worth giving them a try if your not happy where you are?

Heard thers a good school down near Oxford..............:ok:

[BillieBob]

yeah! haw can a town no where near the sea have i pier??My God! The benefits of a classical education!!

[Busbo]

Sorry to get this thread back on the original topic but I will anyway.

Why is it that the people who have least reason to winge about OAT are always the ones doing it? So a FI said they didn't do anything, big deal! The people that say such statements are usually the ones who expect to have OAT send someone to the interview for them! There is only so much help that any training organisation can give its graduates and in my (first hand) experience OAT did pretty much all that they could do help. Its in their own interests to get you a job, they dont want a mass of unemployed pilots to bring down the figures they like to show off at it's open days! In my experience the only slight negative is that when graduates have not been put forward to a particular airline when others have the unsuccessful people are not given reasons why and so find it difficult to improve their prospects for next time. That said however, I have been assured that this will be addressed and I for one believe it will be.

My personal experience of the post-app service from OAT is that firstly I was put forward to major airline and managed to put up a pretty poor interview performance so back to the drawing board on that one. After a few months wait another airline approached Oxford although I wasn't put forward this time, I did however apply myself from an ad I saw in Flight magazine and got the interview. I succeeded in messing that one up too although looking back on both of them I'm glad I didn't become an employee of either, its not bitterness because they turned me down it was just their arrogant attitude and self-belief. Another few months passed and I was beginning to get a little worried as my IR renewal amongst other things was beginning to loom in the distance so a phone call from OAT asking if I wanted to be put forward to another airline was very welcome! I got a call from the airline and attended an interview which was so friendly it verged on being enjoyable! While all this was going on another airline had approached OAT and people who hadn't been put forward for the first were able to go for this one. In the end I got the job from my third interview, an interview I would definitly not have got without any help. So all in all since finishing my course about 7 months ago I got one interview for myself, saw no other major airlines advertising suitable jobs and OAT provided a total of three potential opportunities (not to mention the GECAT scheme which has come shortly after with another two airlines interested there)

In short, I would not have gained airline employment in the time I did without the help of Oxford. Thats a fact and not something that can be brushed aside by someone who hasn't even experienced the training there. Of course Oxford give a little spin sometimes, they're in business and they want to come accross the best that they can but to say they lie is a step too far and needs proof before such accusations are made.

[distaff_beancounter]

yeah! haw can a town no where near the sea have i pier??
When George Orwell wrote The Road to Wigan Pier wasn't he referring to a quay on the local canal that was known as "The Pier"?

Now someone will tell me that there isn't a canal at Wigan! :confused:

[stue]

Now then Billiebob, play nice. I live here i can say what i want about the place. You got a problem with my edcuation then blame my parents. Other than that, shut up. :rolleyes:

distaff_beancounter, yes, he did. Yes it is and yes there is a canal that runs through the centre of wigan. The Leeds/Liverpool canal. Still, most people dont associate a town without a sea border to have a "pier" and in any event, it really is quite a boring place IMHO.

Anyway, we got side tracked abit there, back to OAT...........................

Good post Busbo! Glad to hear that everything went well for you

[almostsane]

I also graduated from OAT modular a couple of years ago. At the time the careers dept. wasn't great, it was also mainly geared up for integrated students. Whilst polite they were not interested in modular, made some noise but no action.
I'm now a FI with Cabair and despite various airlines vetting candidates through the school, they won't help much either.
This game is all to do with who you know and luck, I've got almost 1000hrs and a degree in engineering but have still got nowhere.