Thank you Magarnagle for the info.
Your description of the way the course works certainly answers a few questions I had.
I'm hoping to get a CPL this year (I assume it will take at least a year - the prospect of studying full time is diminishing with my bank balance), and if all goes to plan I look forward to a (probably long) stint in GA. However, I am footloose and fancy free, and I can see reasons why others may want to get straight into a different gig.
Back to the point; there are plenty of threads on these forums where various people discuss the values of various schools. I can think of two common pieces of advice that pop up everywhere; don't pay for anything in advance, and visit the school personally to see what you think.
I have visited schools in Canada, the US and Australia in this regard, and the experience has been excellent (I was travelling anyway, it wasn't a special trip for the purpose). If FTPT is an online theory course (without a base to visit) which you pay for up front, joining up would seem to disregard both these gems at once.
I will not pretend I know anything about the industry or this course and admit I have a non-aviation background. But I think this thread demonstrates that close inspection of any potential school or course BEYOND the realm of your desktop would be beneficial.
If FTPT do read these threads, do they care to comment for themselves? We are all interested in how the course works. I will contact them myself also, and come back to the forum if I hear anything.