In fact I have to agree with what Stan has stated, its my belief that it will come back around. No one can get a loan to train any more and the amount of pilots needed with any sort of expansion in the industry will far out strip supply
Why? There has never been any real shortage in the industry. The source has always been a combination of military pilots and civilian career improvers. These cadet schemes sprang up as a commercial initiative that exploited a niche in the airline training market that used to exist in small measure with some of the limited career sponsorship schemes such as BOAC/BEA Hamble.
There never was any compelling need for the majority of airlines to take 200 hour cadets and recruit them en-masse into the right hand seat of commercial jet transports. The success of these commercial "airline pilot training schools" was brought about by a combination of easily available credit (they got paid up front). A good and easy sales pitch to the candidates, and the lynch pin of the whole operation, a supply of cheap qualified bodies to occupy the right hand seat. The whole success of the operation rested on the "cheap" bit. That is where the supply shortage existed.
The success of these schemes rested on the airlines ability to cut their own costs by simply fulfilling the end role of absorbing the product. Undoubtably for the early output the schemes were very successful. However the same nagging question kept being asked, why would the airlines persist with these schemes unless they continued to fulfill the primary criteria of keeping their costs down? Indeed having discovered the savings to be made, they soon realised what a cash cow that right hand seat could be: £30,000 for a type rating; no employment contract commitments; charge for training; charge for uniforms; charge for every other sundry item. You would never have been able to do that with ex-military pilots or career advancers from other companies.They would simply have turned such terms down and moved on to the next company. However a market of people prepared to pay large sums of money to satisy their ambitions, (a theme park experience,) created a whole new supply source that worked enormously to the airlines advantage. At least it did until the economy started to nosedive and the reality hit home.
At some point the market will pick up. The problem is that when it does (and all other things being equal,) it won't mean that the right hand seat suddenly becomes part of the upper rungs of an aviation career structure, as it used to be. It will once again become a part of the sales and marketing opportunities for the companies concerned. Like all good pyramid schemes it only works well for those who get in as the market starts up. Those who come later simply finance the game.
If changes come about (such as those proposed in the USA,) to restrict these type of jobs to full ATPL holders with a minimum of 1500 hours, then many of these "airline puppy farms" will have to change their business model. Airlines will not have any trouble finding recruits for the right hand seat, but the market will dictate that terms & conditions reflect the reality of having to pay for that experience once again.