Or, instead of changing the modular system, why don't all the modualar schools simply start offering integrated courses? If the only differences are that you take the ATPL exams first and do not have to take a PPL skills test then it should be a simple matter, or would the mod school then have to carry out the ATPL theory course "in house", which many may not have the facilities/ staff to do?
Or could it be set up so that the flying side of it is integrated, with the theory bolted on at the start somewhere else as a separate module? The quality of the product as a whole would be no different. Admittedly the mod schools would have to start offering an MCC, but even if a mod school could not offer an MCC "in house", could they still not integrate the flying side up to the IR?
If that could be done then we could see integrated training available for the same cost as a zero-atpl mod course, ie at a fraction of what it costs at the select 3 integrated schools (FTE, OAT and CABAIR) who have pretty much a monopoly on that type of training.
It would be interesting to know what criteria the CAA set for lisencing a school to do integrated training. If it is the case that a school must do the ground school "in house", as I think it might be, then that is rediculous.
Are there any other criteria that a school must fulfil to be lisenced to provide an integrated course?
From what I can make out, the differences between modular and integrated training up to FATPL are, given the fact that both routes involve roughly the same amounts of dual and solo flying, that a mod student has to jump through a couple of extra beaurocratic hoops.
Why not remove these hoops and make life easier for mod students everywhere, as well as removing the monopoly that the "big 3" have over the integrated market, which allows them to charge such exorbitant prices.
Were the stakes evened, a school such as OAT would have to justify charging 30grand more than say Stapleford through demonstrating that it provided better training, not by saying "ours is an integrated course, theirs is not, so we must be better!" Could they do that? I think not!