The aussie/nz recognition process sounds identical to what i did in canada. Thats the it should be everwhere. Before I went to the states the IAA did the same thing with south african licenses. when my mate came back from south africa we swaped like for like. with the faa, at the time, i think all you needed 700 hrs on your multi cpl ir and it was a checkride and a law exam. I take the point about the schools in the uk but you forget, I lived in ireland. those school were more expensive (pound sterling) than the two that were in ireland, and took just as long to complete your training. If people were coming back from eastern michigan or embrey riddle after 18 months with all their ratings and close to 1500hrs and johnny down the road was paying twice as much and taking 3 times as long...welll which route would you choose? It would be great if companies brought back the cadeit schemes (open to all) and trained people from scratch but I have long given up hoping for that to happen. Of course to pay for said training they would have to cut costs somewhere, that would either mean less planes which in turn means pilots loose their jobs, or slashing pilot wages like in the states. I actually did pay for my type rating, i had something lines up though so i was lucky. Basically I was offered the job if i got the bare type rating. It was still a gamble but so is life. a secure job today is a job lost tomorrow. just look at companies through time PAN AM, TWA, DANAIR, GILAIR, JET MAGIC the list goes on and on.
The airline industry is cut throat, as is recruitment. There is a lot of money made on wannabes, which is why i believe the JAA system is the way it is now. The old national exams worked perfectly fine...why did anyone need to mess with them???