The pilots unions have always welcomed wannabes within their ranks and over the years there have been posts here on pprune reminding people of the ability to join as an associate member. This would give you access to the members areas of sites and give you some good gen on the industry as a whole. Unfortunately very few people join up as they see it as yet another cost even though it is such a pitifully small amount.
Read all about it here:-
BALPA - Membership