Airline-sponsored initial training? The short answer: not anytime soon, not in any significant numbers, not at all for the vast majority of airlines. This horse has bolted long before COVID. In fact, COVID was the last nail in its coffin, but the process of extinction of sponsored cadetships definitely started long before that. Why? Because. There are more than enough self-sponsored quality candidates even in the best of times and there's hardly any reason for an airline to make a large, high-risk investment into people who may or may not be needed in 2-3 years from now. Two years ago, who knew that COVID would come? Even in January and February 2020, when Wuhan was already in lockdown, Europe was set for a really strong year. And then it all went belly-up in less than a month - with a very sad outcome for everyone who had started a cadet programme in 2018-2019, when the respective airlines were 99,99% certain that they would have jobs for said cadets, come graduation time. So, why would an airline accept that financial risk if it can be entirely on the candidate instead?