My experience comes from working at Orion Airways , Britannia Airways, Airtours and currently DHL, all of whom have historically recruited ab-initio pilots from both training backgrounds. IMHO it is a complete myth to believe you're going to receive superior training from any one source. My current airline has a track record of training LEPs straight onto the B757, they have never discriminated on training backgrounds albeit the entry procedures and tests to get in are extremely tough.
What I am telling you extends beyond my own airline experience because I have a 24 year old son who has recently qualified. He seriously looked at both CTC and FTE for his training but the economics for him just didn't stack up. He chose Bristol GS for his ground school, he did some of his hour building in France and the channel Isles then trained for his CPL/IR with Airways flight training in Exeter. He focused well and managed to condense what would have been a 14 month integrated training course with FTE into just nine months by setting his own full time pace. He completed the entire process at a cost of £48,000 and he tells me that he has enjoyed every minute of it.
My son is now in the early stages of his job hunt so I guess the proof of the pudding will be how soon he finds that suitable job, unfortunately this won't be with my company (not in the short term anyway) because we are not currently recruiting.
Mention has been made of the BA recruitment process, they do structured integrated courses (as you'd expect) which are tailored to their own specific needs. Sometimes candidates train alongside those BA candidate at their own expense, however I've never known BA to buck their selection trend by taking on self funded pilots. It is only possible to join BA further down the experience line, once you've cut your teeth with other airlines - typically after gaining 1500 hours or so.
I know a few young guys in the instructing world who have graduated via the integrated training system who are still looking hard for airline work. One clever young guy in particular qualified via the integrated route over 4 years ago and he is still looking for his first flying job outside of instructing.
It's a really tough world out there - you just need to be very lucky as well as being very good!
I hope this helps guys!
Last edited by sapco2; 12th Aug 2013 at 09:53.