The way people will spend £8000 to knowingly 'sit in a pool' is unbelievable.
8K? Since when exactly? More like six and half including VAT, board and lodging.
If you wont wait to see the state of this company in about 9-10 months time you are taking an enormous risk.
What risk would that be then? The AQC is an MCC+JOC. It is portable and it doesn't expire. You are not bound or bonded to CTC. You can either get a job before your IR runs out or you can't, that possibility isn't going to reduce just because you're in the pool.
Perhaps you are referring to the expense of the course. A comparable MCC with say Jetlinx, would be 3.7k, accommodation and JOC is extra. OAA MCC+JOC would be 4.9k including lodging, not food and their site does not specify VAT.
So to quantify the risk, assuming you don't value a JOC, your looking at spending a couple of thousand more than you might otherwise have done. If you take the JOC into account it is negligible. That is the risk less the assumed benefits. Is that really enormous?