1) Uni or no Uni? Now of course going to Uni is a great way to get better earning potential and also acts as a "Plan B", but I just can't see myself spending approx. 3 years doing a course which isn't my end goal career, only to end up with a mountain of debt and somewhat questionable job prospects.
Totally up to you. Best three years of your life if it’s right for you. I don’t buy into the Plan B rubbish. You want to be a pilot, go be a pilot. A degree doesn’t help much without experience anyway so a true Plan B needs another 5 years in industry, you’re looking at a decade all in to have a really solid plan B. Or you could just become a pilot… If that doesn’t work then go and get a different job.
It’s like leaving school with the dream of becoming a police officer but first spending five years getting all of your accounting qualifications ‘just in case’, makes no sense.
2) Is saving while working a 22-25k job a realistic prospect? Doing some basic calculations, taking an estimate of £1,700 post-tax monthly income and saving the majority of that, let's say £1,300 that makes £15,600 per year and dividing that by the average cost of a modular programme, 60-70k, means I'd be purely saving for 4ish years, seems like a while, doesn't it?
No. But why would you get a 22-25K job? Plenty of jobs that’ll pay better than that you can walk into, they may just be pretty savage. You may need to work extra hours, but 60 hours a week when you’re young and massively motivated is very doable. If you’re doing less than that question your motivation. As has been endlessly said on here, you can borrow a good chunk of the cash once you get some credit behind you. Start grossing £35K a year, bank £20K a year. Two years of that, couple of loans and you’re there.
3) Loans - Now taking out a loan sounds like an obvious way to speed up the process, but I absolutely hate the idea of having debt hanging over my head and putting extra pressure on succeeding, etc. What would happen if training doesn't work out in the end and I'm stuck with it?
It’s a loan, you’d have to pay it off. Same with a mortgage if you lose your job. Them’s the breaks.
4) Modular/Integrated for full-time training - Obviously, the big selling point of modular is the flexibility of being able to work alongside studying (and the hefty discount), however, I'd much rather prefer to focus on one thing at a time and get it over and done with ASAP. How does the workload compare between the two, e.g., is integrated a lot more demanding compared to modular? Also, I'd assume airlines prefer a continuous training record from a single organisation as opposed to something cobbled together from multiple ATOs.
Airlines don’t care where you got the piece of paper from. Case in point, BA is currently open for Modular students who have trained at up to 3 ATOs
5) Job prospects - I've seen a lot of conflicting info about this. How exactly does getting a job after obtaining your fATPL work? I've heard of people jumping straight into the RHS of an airliner and absolute horror stories of those who find no job whatsoever for years on end. A basic glance at most airlines' careers pages shows you need to have some decent time in a commercial operation or on type, which seems like a bit of a catch-22. The phrase "Cadet programme" comes into play here, how does that work?
If you do reasonably well in training, and have at least some degree of aptitude you’re fine. It’s Europe, the system is geared up for entry to the RHS of a 737/320. You’ve got EU right to work as well. That puts you about most UK licence holders. Worst case, you can just throw £30K at Ryanair for a type rating and work for them. When a job’s that close that is a no brainer for the debt equation.
6) EASA/UK licenses - Due to the joys of Brexit, from my understanding, UK CAA license holders are only allowed to fly G-Reg aircraft which seems extremely limiting since the likes of RYR UK / WZZ UK are quite small operations compared to their EU counterparts. Would getting both licenses be logical or just an extra bit of workload for little reward, what about adding it on later if needs be? (I also have EU Citizenship if that plays a part, but would obviously be aiming for UK bases)
Massively increases your employability. Do them in parallel, schools are geared up for it. If you go back and do it later you’ll be relearning question banks.
7) Sponsored programmes...Do they even exist?
Yes, can only speak for the UK but TUI have already recruited this year for a funded scheme, which hopefully you applied for. BA open this year, again you’ll presumably be applying for that!
8) Now this might seem like the most basic of basic questions but how hard is the actual training? Now I'm no genius, but I'm not absolutely inept either just...very average (maths does slightly horrify me though), any figures on dropout rate or personal experience?
Pretty easy to be honest. Groundschool goes no harder than C grade GCSE maths. The workload is very high, the content is simple. Commercial flying is designed to be as easy as it can be as it makes it safer. You’re not joining the Red Arrows.
9) When (If) you do manage to get a job I assume the airline assigns time to train you up on their SOPs, etc, what does that onboarding process look like?
Maybe a week of mucking about at head office learning how to wear ear defenders but generally if you’re new to type it’s a six week type rating then maybe another 4- 6weeks of line training. Then you’re signed off to go and see the world*
*World being a euphemism for the crew car park at 3am and various European airport coffee shops of varying quality.
10) Last one I promise, can anyone give me a quick and dirty guide on how modular is structured? Obviously, you start by getting your PPL and eventually finish with a CPL (which from my understanding is the same as an fATPL if you complete the ATPL theory. As you can tell I'm slightly confused by it) but what are the steps in between? Also, is this different from the basic structure of integrated i.e. the order in which you earn your licenses?
fATPL isn’t a thing, it’s just a handy name for the collection of bits of paper you get at the end. ATPL theory, ME CPL/IR for the ‘fATPL’. Then you add in an APS MCC with a sprinkling of UPRT and you’re good to go. Unlike the US where people really do take all sorts of routes, it’s a given here that you want to fly a jet so the schools are all structured around the fATPL, you’d have to actively go against the grain to not end up with that at the end.