I would be fascinated to know how much debt has been potentially accrued.
A good estimate would be to take the turnover of the training schools, take off say 10% to cover those getting aviation jobs (an optimistic assessment) and that gives you the total amount of un-productive training, or 'spunked cash' to quote from an earlier posting.
You just then need an idea of the percentage of trainees having to borrow money to cover training, versus those who have been more sensible and saved, or those emptying the bank of mum and dad.
Whatever the answer, it's a lot of money (and debt), and it's good to see the problem getting exposure. Whether it will stop the wannabee army is another matter.