The BA position is what I understood.
BA, however, do not appear to me to be the same status of partner airline. The way I interpreted the BA relationship was this:
BA acknowledge that CTC cadets are a resource to be considered for BA recruitment purposes. A CTC cadet is subject to the BA recruitment process e.g. the fully assessment that any applicant goes through. This suggests that CTC training confers no benefit when it comes to BA recruitment.
If BA's policy is to recruit students of the integrated route only, perhaps they will cease to be considered a "partner" airline.
Compare BA to, say, Easyjet who apparently do not put cadets through their own specific selection process (if you consider 6 months line experience not to be a selection process).
There's a marked difference here, which is why I don't think BA are the same kind of "partner".