Apprentices ARE the crap at the bottom Jim lad.
...but we all have to start somewhere.
The idea is to gain the required experience and learn the theory as quickly as possible so that you get your JAR66 B1 licence as fast as you can. Then you get your employer to provide you with a JAR 147 type approval course and take your company Quality Assurance board to get your certification approval and Bob's yer Uncle! All you need then is a bit of time and a bit of promotion. You'd end up as a certifying LAE on about 30 grand with shift pay if you're about average.
Go the other way to be a pilot and you'd still be taking out bank loans to finance your own training and development at about the time you finally qualify as an LAE. Granted, a B747 captain makes a tidy packet but not all pilots reach the left hand seat of a widebody airliner. Take a look at the Wannabees Forum for a look at grim reality...
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Through difficulties to the cinema