"I was told that its common practice to pay to work in some of those countries, shame they're bringing that idea to our turboprop operators."
Oh come on. Don't you go blame the jobmarket situation on us Scandis.
The only operator I've heard that is into the "pay for your job" in Sweden is Avitrans Nordic that currently has a hiddeous scheme where you pay 300 000 SEK and get a TR+LT, no job offer. It's the closest thing to a joke I've ever heard in this buisness. And this is a scheme that's been influenced by the continental european style of recruiting...
However, from my point of view, the UK seems to be the source of all evil in this industry with operators from every corner offering "buy a job" type of deals.
Paying for the TR is common now where ever you go and this is the case for most Scandiland-jobs also. Though, I don't consider that buying a job since it is in fact yet another step in training.
/LnS