Well Well Well
People who think I am part of the OAA customer service team are very wrong, yes I do know people in that department as well as the owners of CTC, and managers in FTE.
So I have a balanced view of the training industry and may be more optomistic because of what I know.
If you read my posts they offer a balanced view of the industry rather than the "Doom and Gloom" merchants and perpetual moaners generally viewed on Pprune.
Aerospace you are talking about Now again and not looking towards a resolution in the next couple of years, which I am sure will happen.
Look at 9/11 there were massive layoffs in the industry but within less than two years the markets was buoyant again.
The industry is global and to get a job we must not just look at the UK and Europe, other economies are suffering yes but there are those which are still expanding and recruiting.
The job section of Flight International still has jobs being advertised and only yesterday a friend of mine (low hours modular student) told me that he has that Jet job and will start at the end of this month.
Jobs are scarse, but I can say that there are still jobs out there, not in the legacy carriers or some of the larger charter operators, but if you are keen and willing to take ANY flying job you will find work even now.
As for my credentials I have over 35 years in the Industry was an Oxford Air Training School Integrated student in the early 70's and have been flying professionally in the Air Taxi, Airline, and Corporate fields for all that time.
Having been through the earlier Boom and Bust of the 70' and early 80's I understand the job market and I have been on the dole when out of work, on more than one occasion, but fortunately for never longer than 6 months.
During 1982 When Laker went bust the job market was very bad and there were several hundred trained pilots looking for work, this took most of them abroad to get that work, but within 2 years the UK market was opening up again and so they returned.
During that time the schools at Oxford and Perth were still producing new pilots who found work, even before some experienced pilots.
As for my support of Ryanair, that comes from having many friends who still work for them or who have worked for them, nearly all of whom were relatively happy with their choice.
For SSTR pilots the airline is a good starting point, and the RYR training standards are recognised as high in the industry and recruitment of these pilots to other airlines has been beneficial to the future employer.
High oil prices yes relatively from 12 months ago but today its below $89 a barrel from a high of $148, on falling demand.
Unpaid leave has been in the industry again from the early 80's and has been used on a voluntary and compulsory basis to keep pilots cabin crew, and office workers in employment rather than layoffs.
Mind you it was in the days that management valued it work force.
Funding for training is a big problem, but if its available go for the dream.
The banks have tightened up their criteria for lending as I have said in the past, and a requirement for £100K is certainly ballpark if you consider an SSTR as well.
The questions are can you raise that money and afford the repayments later ?
Without a strong backup plan the banks will not loan that money now.
The result of the credit squeeze is that there will be less students going through training and therefore at the end they will find those jobs through higher demand and less availability.
Thanks for giving me a good laugh after reading some of the posts, and I am sure the OAA marketing department are having a good laugh too at the thought that I work with them.