Originally Posted by
FutureWannabe
All I can say is wow, didn't expect such high quality, in depth responses, thank you so much everyone.
Still have a few nagging questions though:
1) To put it simply why does integrated...exist? In a perfect world, you would think people would go for the cheapest and most flexible option leaving integrated courses deserted, but the opposite seems to be true. Is it just the whiff of a possible advantage when applying for jobs or is there something more I'm missing?....
I think some airlines like to see that their candidates have attended a full-time integrated ATPL course at a flying school.
This is, (or was) * because students will definitely be properly trained in classrooms by professional teachers. And their flying training will be organised and scheduled, again with professional instructors. The integrated and full time structure brings with it a schedule, an organisation, a consistency, and of course the school needs to maintain a good reputation for the quality of its students.
The scheduled structure tells the airlines that a successful cadet can absorb and assimilate all the ATPL information within a certain timeframe. With modular, a student might be just as good, or might take years to complete the course. Airlines need to know that a cadet has the ability to learn and pass a new type rating, for example, within a few weeks, and pass their 6 monthly recurrent SIM exams every time.
With the modular route there is no guarantee that students will have learned the information in a classroom; in-depth and within a tight timeframe, or have just practised and practised with question banks.
There was a pilot on the Tech Log not long ago, who clearly had no idea whatsoever about the electrical generation systems in their (passenger airliner) aircraft. How could this have been if they had really studied the subject ?
Obviously, there will be plenty of modular pilots who have a full depth of knowledge, but how can airlines know ? Sadly, they won't necessarily spend the time finding out - they might take only the integrated cadets from known schools, to save them a lot of selection work. We had several airline recruiters visit our school to invite applications.
* Just my experience, you understand, based on my own training on a full-time integrated ATPL course at a well known flying school 25 years ago. I am not personally saying that modular is necessarily inferior.
(And I did my integrated full time training in the years before the school prices went really stupid).
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