Whatever you have to tell yourself Bealzebub...there are plenty of opportunities for those that want to work for them and earn their way up. Suggesting that there arent is very shortsighted.
The problem lies with the immediate satisfaction required in todays lifestyle and the need to have "it" now, not 2-3 years from now! The sense of entitlement and the greedy companies that are feeding on this are killing the pilot profession.
Are any of these "academies" not for profit companies?
Didnt think so!
Like so many angry people, you hear (or in this case read) want you want to hear. I haven't touched on the subject of "opportunities" for people working their way up. You have! In your posting history, it has pretty much been a rhetorical compilation of "you have done this", and "you have never done that", and other people are "douchebags" etc. etc. Even the last question you posted (above) was rhetorical.
The subject here is airline employment (in the UK for the most part,) and not flying around the African plains or the lakes of Northern Canada. Not only that, but it is airline employment for low hour commercial pilots (at the base 200 hour level.) It is a subject I have considerable knowledge of, in a real world context, and feel qualified to properly comment on. It doesn't bother me one tiny bit if people refute it or ignore it. I don't profit at all either way. What I am doing, is telling it the way it is. Not the way you (or anybody else) might wish it was, or the way you would like it to be, but simply the way it is.
If you want to discuss the "opportunities" for low houred pilots working their way up through the system, that is fine, but it isn't really relevant to these schemes or the subject matter of this thread is it? (and as you would say in accordance with your customary rhetoric)...No, I didn't think so!"
If you let the chip on your shoulder heal for a while, assessed your own myopia, and took the time to read, you would realize that I have always highlighted the usual career paths towards airline pilot employment. One of those paths is to increase the level of personal experience whereby you qualify for the usual 2000 hour 500 turbine qualification. For many people that path is not as easy as it might sound either, but again that is for discussion in another thread.
What we are addressing here is airline cadet employment at the 250 hour level. Far too many people believe that no matter how they acquire the CPL/IR and those 250 hours, they are still likely to qualify for this type of employment. That just isn't true. Far from encouraging people to believe something, I am (if anything) doing the opposite. The only real
airline pilot employment opportunities at
this level of experience, are through the cadet schemes, and in turn those schemes are run through a few integrated training providers. They are not run in Florida. They are not run on the Canadian lakes, and they not run on the African veldt.
Even before the recent recession a growing number of UK (and other countries) airlines were taking on entry level cadets into their employment structures. The cadets needed to have completed a full time course of approved training at whatever school that programme affiliated itself with. Pre-selection, training and presentation was (and is) usually carried out by the school. The syllabus the individual follows, the training records and progress are all monitored by the customer airlines. The cadet is a known quantity to the airline when they start employment training. There is some degree of guarantee, flexibility, assurance and cost saving for the airline customer. Historically the cadet as an end product has been good, and presented few if any problems.
So when somebody asks the question, "How do I become an airline first officer with only 250 hours?" The answer must sensibly be, through one of these schemes. How much it costs, or what debts you might incur is already highlighted in general discussion without me necessarily reinforcing the financial risks involved (although I have done many times.) If somebody wants to say, "No go modular" or "No fly the Canadian lakes for a few years" or whatever, that is fine. However it doesn't answer the question.
Whatever your moralistic preachings, or views on the greed of companies, or the state of the industry, may be. None of that changes the reality of the marketplace, nor will it. I am stating the way it is, so people can make their own informed choice. It doesn't concern me what choice they make, or what their situation is or might be as a result of those choices. I didn't create this situation, however I have seen it evolve over the last 30 years.
A lot of people here believe that their own future model is the way forward, either because they truly believe that, or because they are already commited to it. As such, their advice centres on what other people have said, or general hearsay, or what they hope might happen. Inevitably some get very annoyed when the facts get in the way of some of the popular fiction.
The company I work for has just recruited for this year. The company is representative of the broader airline industry generally. This year we have taken on around 20 new first officers. About half of that number are experienced pilots (as already defined). The remainder are cadets through an established affiliated training provider.
None are 250 hour wannabes from any other source.
Look again at the title of this thread, and tell me what it is you don't understand?