djfingerscrossed sounds more like djwirescrossed.
A change in rate of declared bankruptcies is not an indicator of the proportion of the total population of a group going bankrupt. Without showing the figures, your claim that "most medics" are going bankrupt still means nothing and appears unfounded. To post it like it's ok to do it coz all doctors are doing it is dumb. Don't give people bad ideas. Bankruptcy might even prevent a future captaincy, but that's an unverified rumour from the farm.
From Recruiter.co.uk, 2007:
This year’s crop of university leavers are earning an average starting salary of around £20,800, according to the latest First Rung: Graduate Pay Trends report from management consultancy Hay Group. The study, based on information from public and private sector employers throughout the UK, places the average graduate starting salary at £20,812.
It found that despite a rise of 2.5% since 2006, wage inflation for university leavers continues to lag behind national levels of 3.5% over the last year, the report finds.
The Hay Group research reveals that for the second year running, starter salaries in the public sector are racing ahead of those offered in the private sector. The average salary for a graduate joining the civil service in 2007 will be £21,885 – 3.1% above the average private sector wage of £21,223. Only those seeking work this year in the lucrative oil industry can expect to earn a higher average starting salary, with packages pitched at over £25,227.
Juan Novoa, reward analyst at Hay Group and author of the report, says: “Despite the increasing number of graduates in the job market, companies are still struggling to recruit graduates with the right mix of skills and competencies. Rather than attracting candidates with high salaries, many companies are now marketing a total package, based on bonuses, benefits and comprehensive training programmes to ensure their graduate intake develops the right skills to be fit for the future.”
Graduates working in London continue to command the highest starting salaries at £24,333, up 7% since last year. The South East is also a relatively lucrative region for graduates, boasting an average starting salary of £21,022.
Scotland, however, has fallen significantly down the graduate pay ladder since 2006. The region now comes in at a poor ninth in the graduate pay table for this year, with typical starting salaries pitched at 2.2% below the national average at £20,354.
So djfingerscrossed’s figures ("Higher level grad schemes will be around circa 26k plus (usually with golden hand shakes) so you can make those payments (just) and have a few quid.") is wildly off the mark for maybe 95% of grads. According to last year's numbers, you'd have to be in oil to get near what he/she is talking about. Or maybe banking. Hmmm... banking. Did I hear something in the news about banking, recently?
£20,800 p.a. contracted out of S2P and not paying anything to a corporate pension scheme gives approx £1361 per month take home, based on
Financial Tools - Prudential UK figures. If you just came out of college at 19, you're even worse off as you’ve got much less earning power.
And remember the weakness of average figures. Basically, on these numbers a recent graduate cannot service the debt because they would not have enough money for food, clothing and transport, never mind anything that makes life better than being a bonded slave. Which you essentially are, on these terms, and that's not taking into account uni debts. This would mean a re-negotiation with HSBC to lower the repayments, thereby extending the life of the loan and the overall cost of it. Plus whatever pressure is coming from uni debts, which come straight from wages under the new system, right? Then there's the IVA option, with all of the stigmas and issues. And then there's bankruptcy. I'd be interested to know how bankruptcy can be "made to work" for the individual over a period of 10 years from the date of declaring. Please educate me and I'll get cracking with the paperwork and book that court date online.
How can university entrance figures ballooning in the last 15 years do anything other than effectively restrict the proportions taking the top tier places? Aiming to get in means nothing until you're there, and if there's more competition then it's stupid to financially forecast in the most optimistic manner.
Hope for the best, plan for the worst.
With Zoom, XL and others in Europe going to the wall, there's a glut of unemployed experience pilots in the market. They all speak English. Most of us don't speak anything but. There's another big thread or two about this particular topic and it rings true for all FTOs and their cadets.
As for supportive messages, what about reality? "Support" is not synonymous with "shot-from-the-hip bull****". The reality is this: it's now a terrible time to be trying to start an airline career within the limited timeframe presented by the repayment dates of your massive loan because the jobs aren't there at the end right now and if the economic cycle takes 2 - 5 years to recover, that might be too long for you to ride out. There's loads of CTC Wings cadets in the pool right now and the longest swimmers have been there for I'd estimate 6 months+. If you can still get the unsecured finance, recent posts here should be the sobering message that CTC won't give you in the recruitment brochure.
Readers of this thread should be aware, and it is pretty obvious, that few current/past cadets post on here, and the factual information they can/do share is limited for a number of reasons. IMO cadets who have inside knowledge who choose to post therefore have a responsibility not to talk cavalier bollocks to people who may be rather impressionable for one reason or another, nor should they underplay aspects of what is a massively risky undertaking regardless of the economic climate in which it is being undertaken.
BA do take modular people. They've been taking modular people from CTC all along. Every CTC applicant to BA to date has been modular. Albeit CTC modular are the only modular ones they take, apparently. But as has been said, BA is not the be all and end all of commercial flying in UK/Europe, just as £26,000 (with handshakes and cock knocks) grad jobs are not the be all and end all of grad jobs.
Applicants: If time is on your side consider all options and extend your time window. Avoid fixation on one thing, coz it's probably going to lead you down the wrong path. If time is not on your side, make sure you can afford the risks.
Why is no one talking about organising a run on HSBC to bring about its unrecoverable demise, thereby causing all debts owed to it to be written off? Fight Club, anyone? Now there's a topic worth discussing. Not that I am advocating errr... Well, then again...
JB5000 - CTC was never a guaranteed job.