Originally Posted by
RatherBeFlying
In the decades after WWII, you got trained by the military and moved to the airlines when your time was up. As previously noted, the military has cut way back on flying and training pilots.
That was not universally the case. In Europe it was airlines training their cadets largely inhouse right from the street in abinitio programs. Which lead eventually to the Lufthansa-developed MPL program that has been ICAO adopted quite a few years ago. The military was at best an additional source, but not the main one. However, both, the airlines and the military used a similar initial selection and training style, assuring a certain quality of trainees. Those selections still exist, however, the cost of the training has now been transferred from the airlines to the applicants.