Having worked for L3 and CAE (Before it was called that) I personally wouldn't go to either. No one's mentioned the fact that a lot of L3-trained pilots were actually trained by Leading Edge at Oxford, who do Integrated, Modular and Dual Licence. Almost the whole of the L3 Groundschool team moved to Leading Edge from Coventry 3 years ago. As for CAE, they're still living off the name they had as Oxford Aviation training 25 years ago (when I was there). As far as I know, Leading Edge, BGS, FTE and Skyborne are all okay, but you need to visit and if you fancy a place but don't want to pay more in skills testing, say so and see what happens. Good luck.
Will probably have a look at Skyborne - I had a phone call from CAE earlier and despite what they were saying it certainly sounds like an earlier poster was right in that the MPL is likely the only way in to ezy employment - and beyond that the ATO doesn't matter for other low-hour recruitment at the moment.
For anyone looking at CAE and who need the figures - they are contracted to supply 200 MPLs per year, and if ezy want to hire any more the next 150 have to come from CAE's white tails. Anything beyond that they can look to other ATPLs.
Ezy's press release earlier this year said they want to hire 'over 1000 pilots' in the next 5 years; so assuming the MPL programme is filled to capacity and that ezy's growth target is not substantially beyond the 1000 mark, their recruitment is probably going to be saturated by the MPLs for the next 5 years or so (longer if their growth plateaus and/or they freeze hiring, again) - their white tail request this year was about 400 according to the advisor I was speaking to (of which the first 150 came from CAE), which meant of course they tried to say to me that a TR and RHS job with ezy when I graduate their ATPL was a shoo-in; but by my reckoning the MPLs + 400 white tails this year accounts for their losses over covid and white tail recruitment will be nigh on 0 if I graduated with them at the end of 2024. Of course if anyone has figures to the contrary, feel free to chip in.
FTE have filed the paperwork for approval as a UKCAA ATPL training centre beyond the end of this year, but the CAA are being a little slow allegedly and should get back to them by the end of November.
In any case, I'm going through the BACF application process of present so my offer/rejection should come through around the same time that we figure out whether FTE have been approved by the UKCAA (I assume they will be), at which point I can go with them or look at visiting/applying to Skyborne who I have also been reading good things about of late.
With Wizz quoting what is it like 4,500 pilots over the next 8 years, I dare say that they're a reasonable bet regardless of ATO: I know they're known as being a sub-optimal employer; but exposure to the NHS means my bar for what consistutes a decent employer is pretty low, and I reckon getting on the career ladder is more important than starting with a top-notch airline.