Parabellum, re your post =19= " no money changes hands". Is that quite so ? Forgive me if I am getting terms mixed up, but as a candidate for SIA DEC long time ago, I was required to put up front a cash deposit known as a Training Deposit. It was a lot of money. The cash would be placed in a Singapore Bank Account & returned, with interest, on completion of the five year "bond" period. Quite a good deal , actually, if you had the money in the first place. UNfortunately, exchange rates not favouring the GBP at the time, the amount required was increasing. By the time I would have worked my notice with my existing employer, by joining date for SIA, the "Training Deposit" would have exceeded my ability to pay. So, cash really did change hands !
Moreover, the company applied a rigorous bond on top of the aforementioned. Leave or "jump-ship" within the five year period would mean losing the deposit and then being pursued for a contract break. The latter was for a huge amount of money or jail time.I believe that a couple of cases were successefully pursued in the States by SIA and the pilots were ruined or did time in the Pen. Can't remember.
I bear no criticism for SIA and training bonds in one form or another are commonplace. Actually, it is the rather unprofessional actions of a number of pilots who accepted sponsored pilot training or type conversions in exchange for "bonded" service and then reneged that caused an increase in the bonded activity.