Originally Posted by WWW
Bottom line is there isn't a CTC scheme which is likely to cost you less than £100,000 on your way to a first career job.
It's difficult to tot it all up because of the number of differing factors involved - how much you borrow to start with, financial commitments outside the course, how long you have to wait for type rating, etc. But as a VERY rough guide, here's how I'd approach it:
- Cost of the Wings course -
£69,000
- Interest accrued over the repayment term -
(depends on the terms of the loan really, but when I signed up the course cost was £60,000 and the total repayable over 7 years was expected to be £84,000 so let's use that for now and call it...) £24,000
- Foundation course cost (at current exchange rate) -
£8,000
- Living costs
(you're not earning, so these have to be taken into account - as a very low-end guess, let's say £500/month for 18 months) -
£9,000
- Insurance - at least
£1,000, from what I hear.
So already that's a total cost - not an up-front cost, as a chunk of it is interest which will accrue over time - but a
TOTAL cost - of
£111,000 
. And if you end up going to an airline which requires a contribution towards the type rating, it's probably going to be another small five-figure sum on top of that...
Fancy PowerPoint slideshows, slick marketing presentations and website FAQs showing the "money flow" are all very well and good, but at the end of the day that's a sum of money well into six figures which will be against YOUR name, and you're going to be paying back at some stage along the line.
If you still think it's for you then fair enough - it worked for me, although having to pay that much back is like having a millstone around one's neck for 7 years. But just think about it. Well over a hundred thousand quid...