Fans,
The most significant change occured in 2002 with the implementation of JAA. Prior to this on the CAA system there were three main ways (excluding the military route) to get the CAA CPL/IR
1) Attend a CAP 509 course (I think that was the number, well something along that lines) which essentially is the old name for an integrated course.
Although some people did self fund these courses a very high percentage of these courses were sponsored by the airlines, at that point, British Midland, Brittania, Air 2000, Air UK and British Airways ran a combination of full and partial sponsorships.
2) The /self imporver route, on the self improver route you could obtain a BCPL (Basic Commercial) at 150 hours, this allowed paid work on single engine aircraft. On a BCPL by instructing (after doing an AFI rating), aerial photography, glider towing or para dropping you would hour build hours to gain 700 hours. At 700 hours the BCPL was upgraded to CPL. Most would then do the IR. On the self improver route you did not need to take an approved course for the IR, it was done on a training as required basis. Several QFIs may have had significant experience in teaching the IMC rating prior to taking the IR. This meant that any CPL/IR holder from the self improver route would have a minimum of 700 hours.
3) There were also BCPL - CPL upgrade courses this is probably more akin to the current modular route.
The other difference was that you could self study for your ATPL exams under the self improver route without requiring an approved ground school provider.
As an A-level student I was planning to go thorugh the Self improver route, but by the time I finished University JAA had been introduced.
Self sponsored type ratings, not as new as people think, BAC Express were probably the first offering SSTR in the UK (to my knowledge) charging about 8-10000 fot Shorts 360 ratings.