Metch,
Just to follow up. The point about 'buying your way in' was just to say that the CAA consider it an unusual route as does the government who don't offer the same kind of support to trainee pilots that they offer for other professions.
In the past you could also get trained by being sponsored by someone like Bristows. However, those companies are struggling in the current market and as far as I'm aware there are no current sponsored programs available. There was also talk that CabAir would do some kind of sponsorship to CFI level with pay taken from your CFI salary to pay them back. However I'm not sure that program went ahead either.
The last point to make is that companies (when they used to sponsor) sent their students overseas to train anyway - the UK is too expensive even for corporate budgets.
I think someone suggested that UK employers would prefer UK training - personally I think that is a myth used by flying schools to scare up custom.
It seems to me the requirement is a) the right license (i.e. JAA) and b) the right kind of hours (i.e. PIC in changing environments and conditions). Other than that I doubt an employer will care too much about where your hours were gained. Getting that JAA license though is not a small task if you have an FAA or other country license...
r.