Skyways, you have heard of the saying: 'A bird in the hand being worth two in the bush'.
I've seen some very rose tinted views of this potential cadet scheme in various fora. I have to say, being a cynical old goat, that it is probably misplaced. The best you can probably expect is help with a loan. There are several well established examples of a mix of funding and help with loans for cadetships. I simply cannot see Aer Lingus providing money up front themselves. Not given their current attempts at cutting everywhere in the airline. It might be that the optimists in the pilot training side are proposing various sponsored schemes but you have to wonder would it get past Herr Mueller.
Also for those of you thinking, this is your chance. It will be vastly oversubscribed particularly if there is any sponsorship because that will attract people who've barely thought of being a pilot until they saw the ad in the paper. If you look at the numbers applying for the FO positions, you could probably quadruple the number of applications for a sponsored cadetship.
I remember going for the sponsored cadetships back in the day. They would literally fill big halls with people during the aptitude tests for several days and that was when it was mainly an Irish affair. This time they will probably hire the Albert Hall in London for the aptitude tests just for the British applicants alone.
Assuming it's sponsored of course, which I doubt.