Sir Donald,
Do not know whether you work for British Airways but it is all on the internal Intranet. We have always offered the jobs internally before going public and indeed I believe it is a legal requirement. In the good old days even cadet positions could be applied for by company employees.
I suspect (total conjecture though) that BA will require DEPs in the nearish future and although would like TEPs, it does take a while to wind that process up again.
Frankly if anyone does want to fly for BA, best advice may be to join some two-bit franchaise operation, wait for it to be taken over by BA and then take a whopping great pay rise whilst moaning how good it was to fly from a portacabin in a car park! Another topic entirely...
Your humble servant,
Leslie