Listening to the QF bloke yesterday, where he spoke on both Channel's 7 and 9 morning shows,
QF are hoping to attract to the training programme, Year 12 HSC achievers with high marks or University educated people.
I'd guess the company will be swaying towards high academic qualifications during the initial and subsequent waves of recruitment for this type of programme,
due to the stakes being high, as a person will have to sign up (or through HECS) for a debt, i reckon of at least 120k, that's up to frozen ATPL level.
Not sure who will pick up the accommodation and daily meal allowance over 18 months, that does cost.
The rewards are high for anyone that is accepted and finishes the programme, they will more than likely be an F/O on an aircraft type, but if a person
fails any part of the theory or flying portion, then it could be a financial nightmare or stuck with a nice HECS debt and more than likely, will possibly have to complete
the rest of the training as an external student, meaning extra funds will be needed and the original job offer, may not be on offer anymore.
Remember all the CASA exams are computer based and a result is printed on completion, although the CPL exams aren't much of a challenge these days,
the Instrument Rating exam and some of the ATPL exams, especially flight planning can be a challenge and stretch most persons.
Most companies only give an applicant three attempts to make the grade for any given test, whether it's a written, flight test or aircraft type rating/endorsement.
If the grade isn't achieved in the required time frame, then the event is recorded as a fail.
What happens after that, is heartache, more money, study and the question, "does a person still want to continue"or what are the remaining options".
Although 5,000 people may have enquired for this new QF venture with the hope of being a QF pilot, it's not that straight forward, a person needs to meet the medical
and educational requirements, be able to commit to a massive debt that won't disappear overnight and have the ability to pass all aspects of the theory and achieve the required flying standards,
within the allocated time frame.
What i see happening is, the company will more than likely accept applicants that meet the entry requirements for this programme that have high academic qualifications, then once
they have exhausted this pool, they will possibly start lowering the entry educational requirements, just to maintain the training numbers, to enable the training business venture to continue being viable.
There could well be 5,000 enquiries now for this new programme, but once serious players get all the facts and understand what's really involved to be a pilot, the original number of enquiries will drop.
I can never see QF reaching the proposed 500 student training level at any single facility in a 12 month period, maybe just 100 or 150 and that's with a full strength of staff and training fleet.
Look at the example of all the major flying schools in the country, there's a shortage of grade 1 instructors in the market, now they're mostly advertising for grade 2 and three instructors, check the afap jobs section.
A similar thing will probably happen with this training programme over time, just to attract new students.