I do understand this is a long hard process and takes alot of time, hard work, dedication and patients, all of which I have.
That is correct except that patience is more of a requisite beyond the medical part, but it also takes a lot of money and a lot of luck, neither of which are always easy to come by.
The first thing you should clearly understand, is that a licence plus 250 hours,
doesn't equal airline pilots job. In a few cases it does, but in the vast majority of cases it doesn't even come close.
Most people are limited by cost and opt to complete their training by doing it in modular stages at training providers of their choice. This is often deemed to be a far cheaper way of licence aquisition, but it is usually way below the levels of experience that most airlines seek when recruiting new first officers (co-pilots). Generally airlines look for qualified candidates from either a military or civilian background with 1500-2000 hours experience usually with 500 hours on turbine (jet or jet/prop) equipment. The gap between licence aquistion and achieveing these experience levels are where many people come unstuck. Jobs in this "aerial work" territory are often few and far between. There is a lot of competition for those that are available, which then often sets a high experience bar, and usually low levels of remuneration.
There are "cadet" programmes run by a few airlines through a few recognised integrated training schools. They are relatively rare, have a high application standard, and require significant levels of financial commitment. I have seen figures of £70,000 and £80,000 mentioned so far. In reality prepare yourself for a
minimum investment of £90,000. These sums often requiring secured bank loans and guarantors. These schemes are the most likely way of obtaining an airline placement with only a couple of hundred hours experience. This is because the training courses are single provider, geared up to direct airline placement, with the airline having a significant input or monitoring presence in the programme.
There are no airline "sponsorships" as such, although you will often see courses or programmes where the term "sponsorship" is used loosely to qualify some subsidy that the airline contributes toward the overall cost of a few schemes. You should understand that these programmes have a significant advantage with regard to airline placement, but they do not guarantee placement with an affilated airline, whatever past record or current intention may be. There is still a significant degree of risk and a very large financial exposure.
Integrated courses are also offered at similar cost for those embarking on training without an airline affiliated programme. Some airlines will consider candidates from these courses into their cadet recruitment subject to additional assesment and nearly always significant additional cost. For example a "self sponsored" type rating may be required, which might cost in the region of £30,000 on top of the training course.
Despite tales of impending shortages, there are
a lot of people who are unemployed, employed in jobs that would change as soon as a better opportunity presented itself, training through the airline affiliated schemes , and training through the integrated training schools. On top of this huge reserve are the pilots working their own way up through the modular, self improver routes. This group expands the number of would be jobseekers by many many multiples.
A pilots licence (unlike a drivers licence) needs to be regularly renewed and re-tested. This is an expensive process and involves various tests, experience requirements and examinations on an annual basis, something that many people neglect to budget for, in the heady euphoria of training towards licence issue.
First thing to do, is read these forums to get a real picture of what is happening out there to those who have completed their training and for whom the glasses have lost their rose tint. This bit is free. Then when you are ready to start parting with your cash, get a class 1 medical completed.