Beazlebub, its great, and refreshing, to hear a perfectly balanced response such as yours. I see far too much negativity on this forum with no real reasoning as to why they are being negative. So thank you for that.
I agree that CTC stick out from the rest with their relationship with the partner airlines. They have certainly nailed that part on the head, and from my own experience of the company, and their members of staff, they do seem to actually care about their students.
I would like to make a few comments about what CTC said to us on our selection day. Firstly, and probably most importantly, Lee Woodward, the director of the CTC Wings Cadet program, stated that they have only not been able to place one of their cadets with an airline after the type rating phase, and that is due to the fact that the cadet was type rated on the 757. As we all know, there are not a lot of these flying around in Europe anymore. He also stated that the company will be supporting the cadet with a different type rating in order to help them to be placed with an airline. This is not in CTC's contract, but it shows the companies dedication to their students. I doubt any other FTO would be willing to do such a thing.
Secondly, he also told us that he was in the process of speaking to the partner airlines regarding cadet placement over the next year or two, and that he had to tell their partner airlines that CTC would not have enough cadets to meet the needs for those airlines. This can only be a good thing right? I'm not saying that things are improving, and I am definately skeptical about the "pilot shortage" that will we face over the next few years, but I do trust CTC as a company, and I'm very glad that I will be completing my training with them rather than the other FTO's.