i dont understand how this would be driving the profession down the pan.. traditionally aer lingus ran such schemes like all airlines did back in the day. the larger percentage of aer lingus current pilots are from the old cadet scheme, except they got it all handed to them for free!!
what are the alternatives? otherwise people with rich parents or kids who are good at emotional blackmail are all that will ever get to fly for airlines who recognise good training (which comes at a price). banks are not lending anymore, at least this way they will get the right people for the job based on screening to meet their requirements. thomas cook have ran it this year already. why would anybody want to spend 100k plus on flight training without some form of 'guarantee' of a job at the end of it all.
but i do agree that there a lot of pilots out there out of work at the minute. but what do you want? do you want nobody to enter into the profession any more??!!