Would any other profession agree to half -time work during apprenticeship/pupilage/house officer/second officer or whatever?
With respect, I think that you are missing the point here
Lou.
From what I can gather, the Lady in question is not an 'apprentice' in any shape or form but someone who like us all, has studied long and hard (probably at great personal expense) for a career in a environment where jobs are scarce and the pressures of work from employers are ever increasing. Let us not forget that she is a QUALIFIED, professional pilot, not an apprentice. As someone stated above, Easyjet offer the facility to work a 50% part-time role, one would, therefore, expect a Major Carrier such as BA to follow suit?
Oh, and for the record, I think that you’ll find that the NHS (as you mentioned trainee doctors) do, actually, bend over backwards to accommodate health-professionals who wish to work part time.
BH