just my tuppence
I have.
graduated from oat in april this year on course 244, now working for BA along with 6 of my colleagues. when I left (almost) everyone from courses, 238,239,240,241,242,243 and 244 had been employed, approximately 15 people on each course. don't know what happened after that cos I wasn't there, but it was certainly good when I left! it's definately about being in the right place at the right time i'm afraid. I think everyone of those graduates in one way or another (reduced salary/capital upfront) paid their own type ratings, even in BA we are getting a big reduction in salary for the first 5 years, equating to around 40K in lost earnings, but that is now the way of the world and there aint all that much you can do about it as a low hours pilot.
not saying oat is perfect or for everyone, it's not.
same goes for jerez, I spent 5 weeks out there on a BA joc and didn't think it was that great to be honest.
haven't been to cabair for more than half a day so can't comment.
I think I got good value for money out of oat and I know it's easy for me to say having been employed virtually instantly, but even without the new job straight away, I think the quality of training and facilities far exceeded most, if not all of their competitors.
I am not a shiny 18 year old with rich parents either, 27 with 7 years as a licensed avionic engineer with the same company I'm with now.
my advice to anyone is to have something to fall back on so if things aren't great when you graduate, you are able to earn a decent wage whilst looking for work. a few people I know have unfortunately found themselves in the summer lull and have resorted to low paid, unskilled labour to make ends meet and they are finding things very difficult indeed.
spending lots of money on any flight training course is a big risk certainly, but it's one you are gonna have to take unfortunately! reduce the risk by ensuring you have a good back up plan, hopefully you won't need it but you never know!
moo