Never heard of the Chinese Cadet scheme. But I'll be sure to poll around on my next shift to see if anyone has any more information on this.
Horsepowerr: From what I understand the whole month off is there to avoid UK labour legislation. On paper you are a contractor hired by Brookfield. If they hire you for 12 months in the year you are technically a full-time employee and that would entail more costs for Brookfield. The reason I'm not entirely sure is because in recent BRK contracts I've read that the pilot is not allowed to work for another outfit during the course of the BRK contract. I don't see how that fits into the whole "self-employed" image.
I had a chance to take a look at the base roster recently. All commanders are maxing out but to my surprise, FO's are not far behind. More often than not I saw 5 flying days without standby. This is remarkable considering we're February.