A problem I see with people doing the FEE help courses is they may be quite unsuited to becoming a pilot.
This is not applicable to all people going this path but what I have seen first hand is applicable to a number of such students and contrasts with students who pay as you go. There is some generalisation in my comments below but is drawn from personal conatct with student's going both routes.
FEE help students may apply to such courses because being an airline pilot (that is all they know about) seems a cool job, well paid and all they have to do is enrol and turn up (like school) and they will become an airline pilot, at no cost (well yeah they can pay that back a bit at a time a few years later as a deduction out of their airline pilot's salary). Like I said - this is not *all* of them but is drawn for my experience of a number I have seen.
By the time they realise it is not as they thought, that there is no promise of an airline job (or any job), that there is great competition for jobs and that it is hard work and requires commitment and aptitude (and some amount of passion), not just attendance, they already have a big debt. Higher than the cost they would have paid if they went pay as you go.
I have come across people doing this path who regularly turn up late for lessons, do the bare minimum preparation before flights who do the bare minimum to pass exams, who aren't curious about "the why of things aviation" and who see training as a chore to endure rather than to eagerly look forward to.
That is not necessarily their fault - we have a system that encourages people irrespective of aptitude to train in an industry that they may have no aptitude for, knowledge about or passion for. And we saddle them with a large debt they will have to pay back over years. And we do this for an industry where there is often a lack of jobs. As taxpayers - why do we do this?
A consequence of this is we have sausage factory businesses who see the FEE help as a their business model, who are motivated only by recurring income rather than any passion or commitment to the aviation industry, their students or the product they turn out, who do the minimal training, rather than schools (yes they do exist) who have a drive to train people well and who have a passion and commitment to aviation, not just income.
Contrast the FEE help model with those students who have a passion for flying, who work at other jobs simply to feed their training costs as they go, who turn up early for lessons, who prepare for flights and are trying to wring the most learning they can out of each one because they have to hand over their money each time they fly and want maximum value.
These students will also sometimes be unsuited to the industry and lack the aptitude but as they are paying up front, they will have a stronger motivation to bite the bullet early of their own choice rather than persevere into a mountain of future debt.
Irrespective of if students go the FEE help or pay as you go route, unfortunately aviation is an industry that usually involves struggle to gain a foothold, that does not offer the glamour or financial rewards (at least for most) and is not suited to everybody. You don't want to get into it for the money. You get into it because you want it. You need to have drive and passion and sadly even that will not guarantee you a career.