One thing which slighlty irritates me about OAT is that they feel the need to call their course the "Airline Preparation Programme" as opposed to its real name, an "fATPL course" as everywhere else calls it. As far as I can make out the only thing different is that they give you their "First Officer Fundamentals" section, where real airline pilots come in and give you talks about the job. How useful is this really, I mean learning to fly the plane is what ur there for. So they might tell you a bit the job from non flying perspective, what the airlines want to see, good attitude, smart appearance. This kind of stuff is obvious to anyone who has done anykind of other professional work already! If the purpose of the first officer fundamentals is to tell u a bit about what the job is like then it really has no point, as anyone who has already handed over their 60k to OAT already isnt going to change their mind halfway through if they hear something about the job they donīt like, and they will ideally be finding out what it is like to be a FO in due course anyway.
Think about it, rich daddy/ perspective trainee is keen on their offspring/ themselves getting an airline job. What will they be more drawn to, a course called the "Airline Preparation Programme," or the same course somewhere else given a less fancy name.
Ps, I dont really know what the First officer fundamentals course is like, am just making reasonable assumptions above. Would be interesting to hear from anyone with an opinion on said element of the course, what does it tell you that you dont/ should know already, and is it any use?