Like it or not they have scored a major own goal by running the tagged cadetship schemes for the bulk of the jobs they can get their hands on. If they had left the selection to after completion there would be a reason to go for the courses with the chance there after for the dream job what ever the T&C's were. Now unless your extremely lucky and after Ryanair stops that will mean under 10% of those going through, your in the same boat as everyone else
For the most part they
do leave the selection until the completion of the course. Of the group I monitored a year or so back, each and every one of them applied for a placement upon completion of their courses. That was and continues to be the case. The main exception is with the MPL course, because that course by its structure requires more direct involvement with the airline concerned. The vast majority of "wings" cadets have no idea where they will be placed during their course. There are a few
airline specific "wings" courses where obviously pre-selection by the airline was a requisite. However even with these courses, there is no guarantee of placement or employment at the conclusion if it doesn't fit in with the partner airlines then current requirements. Similarly, those numbers can (and sometimes are) supplemented by cadets who were not pre-selected. In any event, the majority of such cadets are still not pre-selected, and usually have no idea what placements may be available to them at, or subsequent to their training course completion.