You must be from the UK and expect sponsorship for anything or goverment hand outs. There is little if any sponsorship in the US.
In the US it is normal for kids to work their way through college and this is no exception. The program is used by many flight schools and the airline that I work with has many foreign Captains and F/O's that have come up this way.
A different culture does it different ways! Agreed there is an element of risk if you cannot hack it, but who said there are any guarantees in life?