This all sounds great to me. I've recently finished my cpl/ir training and am at the beginning of the long struggle for my first flying job. To see an airline such as TOM decide to avoid the current ctc/oaa route is exciting and I hope others follow.
Even if it is only 8 months initially it can provide a step up to other options, and as yeoman said on a previous post, if you're good then there's the chance you'd be kept on. I would personally jump at it, even though it would mean leaving a permanent ops job at another airline.
Out of interest can yeoman/matey or anyone else shed light on how this came about? Was it TOM lead or BALPA, to avoid the 'integrated only' approach with big FTOs? Perhaps BALPA may promote the idea to other airlines.... here's hoping!