Having not gone via the CTC route, I'm afraid Im not too clued up about the ins and outs of it, but Im sure there are a lot of guys here that can help you with that one.
As for me, I needed to do my MCC as quickly and cheaply as possible. I did a two week course at The Flight Center, Wolverhampton airport. Some people might try and say that they prefer to do their MCC on an all singing all dancing 737 simulator or something of that ilk. It makes not a jot of a difference to job hunting though, costs more money, and you come out with the same MCC regardless, so for me, cost and the fact I could get on the course quickly were the only factors for my choice.
My first type rating was on a turboprop for a nightfreight airline, which was done by bonding me. Im now at a different airline where you have to stump up some cash in advance and they paid me back over a few years, quite typical of a few airlines these days.