Oxford Air Traiining (merged)
Dear All,
With King Rooney banned I seriously would like a positive post for OAT. I have chosen to start in the next couple of months and it would warm the cockles of my heart and soothe any nerves I have about doing the right thing. I am making a significant career change as an older student and do have some jitters about it.
I have visited several other FTOs including the immediate and obvious competitors and listened to their spin. With the B.S. filter on and open eyes I do believe that I have made the right choice with Oxford. Their course structure is good for me, 6 months in Oxford doing ground school, Goodyear Arizona for only 5 months flying and back to Oxford to finish IR, MCC and JOT. It means that I'm not changing country for a significant period of time so I can keep my social life and hopefully girlfriend too!
I felt their aircraft were good and also their sims were much more modern than a lot of the competition plus they have a 737 sim for JOT plus JOT is included in the course price which needs to be taken into account when comparing to other courses!
It is a much more mature campus and you're free to get away in the evening and arrange your own accomodation and can drink in any pub you like after you finish studying. I had a bad experience of the FTE bar being closed when I visited as a punishment to all for a party and had to drink beer from a vending machine.
Finally and most importantly, I do believe they help you find a job. No there are no guarentees but there is help. I hope I've got this right, 85% of last years grads have jobs? I heard of a story of one of their grads from one class who failed all his interviews but he was a bit of a quirky character, they took him back in and gave him some more interview training. Their assesment is more stringent than any of the other's I've been to (didn't do CTC, to old) because they want to make sure that you can get through and get a job and not spoil their succes rate.
I know its more money but you get what you pay for and as a mature student I want a good set of logs to help me get that job. I am expecting delays with flight scheduling but that apparently is par for the course everywhere.
With my tin hat on, I expect a barrage of abuse.
Muddy Boots
P.S. King Rooney did do some funny posts too, be good to have him back soon.