Hmm, I think there is a great deal of difference between the BAe you had up at Prestwick and the one you now see in Jerez.
If I had to hand on heart choose between the two I think I would go to Kiddlington now. I've been a BAe man for some years but the rise in the Euro has killed off the price advantage. Living in Spain has its downs as well as its ups. The Oxford ownership and staff are known quantities today.
Probably they'll make a good go of it in Jerez under the new regime. But the tiny risk of them not doing so would bias me to Oxford for the time being.
That said. I don't have the slightest clue why anybody would want to do an Integrated course right now.
The numbers of Int graduates who go straight to an airline is tiny and probably no larger than those who come from the Modular route. Its just if 6 people from OATS get hired this month the news bounces around the Wannabe World at Mach3. Nobody talks about the two chaps from Bristol, the one from Bournemouth, the two from Cranfield and that girl from Leeds who all got hired in the same month.
See?
When airlines are running ab initio sponsored courses then it can be worth paying the money for an OATS, BAE, WMU, CCAT course. Why? Because people fail the course and airlines sometimes don't sign up enough cadets. They then immediately ask the CFI to nominate a couple of good self sponsored chaps to fill the gaps. If you happen to be training at the same school at the same time and roughly alongside the airline course in question - your name is in with a chance of being put forward.
You can tell me until you are blue in the face that you get better training at an Integrated course and I won't believe you. Even if you did the £20,000 premium is not worth it. Not even close.
Smaller commercial FTO's can give you a more personalised service, with better instructor and aircraft availability operating out of better airfields to more useful syllabuses. They offer lower rates, higher pass marks and better course morale in many cases. They may have no connections with major airlines but more often they do have lots of contacts in General Aviation which has provided the first commercial flying jobs to more people than the major jet airlines ever have.
As for Groundschool - enrol with OATS for that as they have are excellent. I think Bristol is better and the likes of ATA amongst others are none too shaby. Take your pick - there aren't many bad or even mediocre groundschools out there any more.
Cheers
WWW