BACE flight op redundancies will come from retirement and moving to BA Mainline you say?
Surely not.
I don't denegrate the practice of SO's on widebodies. But not many airlines do it and most people agree its not the best start to your flying career.
As I have defended 200hr pilots flying jet airliners on this forum for about half a decade now it really would be unfair to imply I am snotty about their abilities whether as a SO or FO.
I am not at all sure full sponsorships will return anyway. The difference between Mod and Int these days is very marginal. I can see airlines saying "85%+ average in the exams plus first time pass in CPL or IRT with 2 A levels Grade C+ plus a recommendation from your school and we'll interview you".
Whereas CAP509 was quite different from 700hrs hour building the truth is nowadays the airline cadets do the same syllabus to the same standards as the modular guys. All the cadets sometimes get is a few extra hours on Aeros or something equally negligble.
It might be a better system in the long run.
WWW