Can't help being glad I didnt apply now, modular CPL here we come
How do you come up with that assessment? Most of the graduates are taken with minimal hours from FTE and Oxford by jet operators. How is wrapping it up with a bit of mentoring at all a bad thing? You gain from the extra business awareness, you gain from being ahead in the queue even if there are fewer jobs when you graduate, and it is wrapped up in one package with one training record from an established provider whose sole aim when it was started was to cater exactly for what British Airways required of its cadets.
I think that some opinions are somewhat utopic that the days of sponsorship will return again - this is the next best thing and should be chosen well above modular - if you are indeed in a position to be able to choose.
If everyone is so willing to pay to train for a licence, do you really expect a company to sponsor ever again?