Ok everyone, the major drawback for those of us born in the UK is the majority of FTO/FTE jobs available are on military aircraft (Westland Helicoptors, Qinitic), even the last remaining complete manfacturer of JAR/EASA 23 in the UK is now doing very little civil work.
So in other words none of these positions are going to allow you to progress from FTO/FTE to Test Pilot. Further to this any of the General Aviation Projects in the UK in hte past twenty years have rarely developed in to anything (Optica, Centaur Seaplane, CMC Leopard, Farnborough F1). Quite simply we no longer manufacture complete civil aircraft (bar Europa and Slingsby).
So in other words joining the military is the only realistic way of becoming a test pilot for a UK national.
One would assume that to work at Piper, Cessna or Bombadier would require US/ Canadian citizenship, as these are places where an FTO could progress to TP.