Therapist, I'm sorry but I have to take issue with your statement:
"The 'sales' team at Oxford are impressive in that they make no false promises of employment but they definitely do help graduates to find work and that marks the difference in my opinion with the other schools. Oxford seeks and achieves excellence. Cabair is not in the same league and CTC is playing at it. Jerez is good but has made little investment in its extra facilities. Look for the simulators!"
I indeed visited Oxford, Jerez and CTC before making a decision and the choice is not so clear cut as you make out. There are a multitude of factors many of which are discussed on a variety of threads - for me one factor in making a choice was the fact that Jerez do their entire course in one place.
In terms of simulator choice, the simulator at Jerez is a Hawker 800 and not the 737's at Oxford I'm happy to concede. Now that is not a disadvantage at all - consider BA's simulator at interview is the BAC1-11 which relies on far more manual skills and has an older autopilot which forces you to demonstrate flying/handling skills that you would be expected to have acquired in training - things which you might not have covered on a 'modern' sim. Consider also that BA sends their candidates to do their JOC at Jerez and not Oxford. Although to be fair in this discussion the MCC/JOC is more about Jet Orientation and working in a Multi-Crew environment and familiarising with a company's SOP's, not so much about flying a plane.
In terms of helping graduates finding work, Thomsonfly are coming down to interview candidates for up to 6 positions this week at Jerez. Number of candidates being interviewed having been recommended by FTE = 7. Pretty good odds I would say
