Unfortunately there is no way around the extortionate costs of flight training these days as there seems to be a steady stream of wannabe pilots signing up to pay for anything they can, that tells you all you need to know about this industry. There are few to zero jobs available for the majority of those who graduate with fresh licences and no experience. Ryanair is the most common route but they ask you to pay 30,000 euros for the privilege and then offer you a 16k salary in return, this is after spending 90k on your licence before your application lands on their desk.
The military is his only way of getting some cost free flying these days however he’ll still have to complete civil flight training once he’s out so the cost is unavoidable, it’s daft!
I’d sadly not recommend this career anymore… covid, brexit and the bizarre diversity hiring quotas being the final nail.