CTCCadet2006 you make some fair points, but then I'm afraid you go and negate them with some absolute rubbish.:
Companies like CTC only exist because the industry allowed the airlines to find a cheaper way of providing their direct entry cadets.
...indeed. That would seem to be their main purpose.
These schemes facilitate attracting people away from other top careers like medicine and law and in to flying...
...Nonsense. How many people doing, for example, a law or medical degree, do you think were undecided about what career to follow and ended up on the CTC course on the basis of what the CTC course offered?
Those on my course back in the day were from a wide variety of backgrounds and had a range of qualifications - for some it was the start of a second career having already done something else completely different. But the one thing everyone had in common was the desire for a flying career more than any other; it wasn't a case of being attracted into it at the expense of whatever industry they might have ended up in, and of course it was before all this crap with 'flexible' contracts and part-time working and the general race-to-the-bottom started in earnest. If it wasn't for the schemes like CTC, most would have ended up somewhere in the flying industry having trained via one of the other routes were available. I don't know anyone on the course who was there simply because CTC convinced them it was a better career than medicine or law, to quote your examples.
hence aiding the industry standards.
What evidence is there to suggest - and what makes you think - that someone who makes a good doctor or lawyer is also going to make a good pilot; conversely, what evidence is there to suggest that people from the more traditional routes are of a lower standard, as your statement can be taken to imply? I can see that some contributors on this forum might well be offended by that comment, as blackred has already alluded to... I think I would be if I'd gone down the more traditional route rather than the CTC course.
By all means come on here and correct people's misconceptions about the CTC course, but at least re-read your posts before posting and think how they sound. There are a lot of people in and around the industry with an aloof and slightly negative attitude towards CTC and its 'product', and it doesn't help when people make statements which can be misconstrued!
As a footnote, I would urge anyone thinking of spending money on flight training at the moment with a view to getting a job in the airlines to find and read the Roland Berger report, which has been mentioned earlier in this thread. Some of it is actually very chilling. When you see what the management of one of the biggest takers of CTC cadets are trying to do to the airline on the back of that report, and consider the wider ramifications for the industry as a whole if (when) it happens, it might make you think twice about throwing money at a job which soon will never be the same as it was. If I wasn't already in the industry, would I even consider getting involved now? Not on your life.
Anyway, back to the topic at hand...