And from an airline perspective on the 320 this is vaguely what I can remember we went through.
Rostered for ground school to start us off. Started off with a recap of MCC type stuff in a classroom with an instructor. Then onto the airbus self study in front of a pc which would have been around 2 weeks I guess. You can generally rattle through at your own pace and try and get ahead of the game if you wish. You will have a set of FCOM's to cross refer to - or be bamboozled by more like!
Alongside of the groundschool there are other bits and pieces to be accomplished such as SEP training, dangerous goods and other operator specific courses to get your head around. Also the odd "field trip" to play with the real thing when one was planned to be parked up for a reasonable length of time. Some more classroom instruction to cover things like performance and any other "hot" topics. Then its the theoretical ground exam.
Then it was into the sim. The first sessions were meant to be fixed base (motion off) but since this was our employer training us they left it on. The sim sessions were 4 hours - 2 as PF(pilot flying) and 2 as PM (pilot monitoring). There are briefings before and after and in great detail. Each session has a detailed programme which you study beforehand.
Once you are through the training then you will do a licence skill test (LST) with a company TRE. After that since it was our first jet type then we got to bash the sim around in circuits doing ZFTT. Think of it as max crosswind landings in a jet. Needless to say it wasn't pretty.
After that then its base training in the real aircraft and the completion of lots of paperwork. Take that to your CAA and hand over your cheque and your type rating will be added to your licence. Then you get to look forward to line training and a line check. Pass that and you are licenced to thrill.