No Cigar,
After attending the tea party round, if you don't make it..there is no more 2nd chance.
As for alternatives, there isn't any.
It is understandable and right that airlines want the best aircrew candidates and that airline will train these people to fit their own operational mold.
But I am intrigued that the rest of us "admirable" and "dedicated" self-sponsored candidates who are trying to scrape through their system don't really cut the mustard. Surely it shows commitment if I put in the time, effort and money into the training to be a commercial pilot.
Is this ambition, self-motivation and financial sacrifices not enough? Is my own training and qualifications different to that of a sponsored cadet pilot??
Alas, SQ will probably continue to regard those (self-gained Commercial Licence or ATPL) as to "far gone" to be indoctrinated into their own training purposes. Lots of shareholders' money will be spent training new aircrew from scratch, only so that these new pilots fall into the "SQ" profile.
With the ideals, SQ should be in the cutting edge of commercial aviation but yet it still coming to terms with those past recruitment and training policies.
And us self-sponsored people will continue to be brushed aside.
We can only live and hope that all the predictions of future pilot shortages might make a difference to those of us that are "more forward in coming forward".
Cheers