No sponsor
It is fair to say I am looking at this from my own perspective as I am less well informed about other routes into the industry.
When I left school there were a number of cadet schemes and the RAF – I got the info on most of them and decided to go to uni before applying. I guess at the time, they barred older people from the jobs at the end of them. By the time I left uni, thinks had changed. I decided that I didn’t really want to go into the RAF – I want to be an airline pilot, and BA and British Midland had stopped their schemes and eazy had started sponsoring; the format of the scheme was a little different but it had the same effect on the availability of airline jobs – some new jobs are effectively barred to people not coming off the cadet scheme that feeds them. I applied to JMC and eazy but screwed up the selection, so then started looking into paying for my own training.
I was bewildered by the choices available, and found the flying schools were very ready to take my money, their advice was contradictory, and their hints and promises about my employability on leaving them outrageous. I passed the selection for one integrated course – as did a suspiciously large number of the people who I met there. But I was struggling to find the money to pay for it.
I did meet the owner of one small school who was totally honest though – the most interesting discussion I’ve had with anyone about the airline industry. He told me to get onto a cadet scheme if I could and if not, to be realistic about my employability. If I was still keen, to save my money as much as I could, but make sure to do the groundschool, CPL and IR with someone good who can show a good track record of getting people through the exams. He didn’t try and sell me his course (modular) and refused to advise me against an integrated course.
I was left with the strong impression that if I did pay for my own training, the chances of employment where not great. The morality issue I refer to is the great marketing machines that have the sole purpose of parting you with your money, but fail to point out the reality that the odds are stacked against you if you do. I was pretty determined, so I had just about decided to take the plunge when CTC told me that I could reapply. I did, was luck enough to succeed and have not looked back since.
Is it wrong that people over 30 can’t get on this scheme? Well I guess that is up to the airlines who set their recruitment rules, but as far as I can see it is no different from what has always existed – if you are lucky enough to get into the RAF or onto an airline cadet scheme, your chances of success are very high. If you are too old, or don’t manage to pass cadet selection, caveat emptor.
One other think no sponsor, can’t you get into Monarch from the ATP scheme? I don’t know that much about it, but my impression is that route is still open to people who self-sponsor – that was certainly in my gameplan if it did have to pay for my own training.