It depends upon who you want to work for......though your 'mate' could always continue to pay to work for the very unethical Ash Trays R us? Way Hey
Failing any flying test is horrible. My sympathies...
Actually its a bit of a shame as Ryanair is a more or less a banker to 'employ' you straight from Ashtrays as both compliment each other well if you consider how they deliberately set up programs to exploit low hour pilots with desperation and money. I do know of one bod who managed to get in to Thomsonfly though, so possibly there's still hope when they next recruit.
I may have got the wrong idea but if you were at the BALPA EOC last month, I got the message that SSTR's were being looked upon by airlines with increasing unfavour. Ive spoken to a few Airlines who I would like to work for and they have echoed these sentiments
But at the very least you can say that your 'mate' is on the ladder.
However, it might be easier to draw up a list of who won't take your mate...