Originally Posted by
SoftwareDev
Unfortunaly for a lot of us, we don't have the privillage of parents having second homes they can sell, or even one home they can remortgage, or any well of family members to inherit from. My parents couldn't even afford a £50 weekend Ryanair flight or the cost of a passport. I didn't get my passport or get to see a plane in person until I was 23 and 3 years later I'm now a licenced pilot.
Funding is a huge blocker and for most, the only way past that is to get a well paid job and I mean £60k+ a year in the UK if you want to pay for the modular route in a reasonable amount of time. To do full modular course now in the UK over 3 years you're looking at burning through an average of £2k a month over 3 years and that isn't even accounting for a type rating. It doesn't matter how much you want it. For the majority, you either need to get onto a sponsored course or get a very well paid job that will llikely require a degree.
I do agree with you, I was just giving my side and my situation, I do count myself very lucky that my mum does have a second house, without it Id be screwed. However, I don’t like the whole notion of success = degree. It’s pretty toxic, and I was fed the same thing growing up. Most of my friends from school, are now in a high paying job. My mate is on 50k a year in management role with rubbish a levels. Some higher some lower. If you’ve got a levels, you’re fine. Even high GCSEs. Degrees are becoming less and less useful, especially in this case someone wanting to be apilot, why pay 30k and then maintenance loans aswell to get a job, that is only to end. A degree is for something that you really want and are passionate about and you want a long career in. Speaking to loads of people at different school, one guy has flown in under three years being an Amazon delivery driver, training at the side and he’s finished his modular course.
i do agree, a degree would put you in a higher place for jobs like finance, law, medicine etc. But to me, and in MY opinion, a degree for the sole purpose of saving for a pilots course is ridiculous imo, the money spent (that has to be paid back) for a temporary job isn’t something I would want to do, PERSONALLY. I have so much regret, if, when I was 18, carried on my Hermes job (I got about 20,000 a year) I could have easily saved 90,000£. But I didn’t.