I don't know about the UK but I thought I'd tell you how it works in Sweden nowadays. And the answer is that it doesn't
Regardless of flight school, training type (ab-initio, modular), it is deadly hard to find a job. The way to do it is to get rated. I don't know anyone who has got a job via a direct entry without having paid for the rating. Therefore, my advice to all who are about to undertake the basic training is go for the modular alternative because it's cheaper! If you loook at, for example, CTC they don't care about where you got your training just as long as you got it, am I right? Unless you find an ab-initio school where you're guaranteed direct entry to a company, I wouldn't recommend it...
I'm about to train at Scandinavian Aviation College of Sweden
http://www.bfsaa.se however not their ab-initio alternative...