As a parent having previously been in your position, I can fully appreciate your concerns.
In 2007 my son was made aware of the BACF mentored scheme whilst working at Birmingham Airport. He applied, along with another 3,500 - 4,000 potential trainees and was very fortunate to get one of the 4 positions available. He did his training out in Jerez (FTE) and completed the course in December 2008. During his training nearly everyone on his course lost their jobs due to the economic downturn. My son was not guaranteed a job but was took on by BA, completed his Type Rating and has not looked back since. Some of his fellow course members have still not got jobs as pilots and have had to pay more to keep their licences current.
He was in the fortunate position of being able to borrow the training costs from me (still waiting to be paid back!) Salaries are not what you might expect, given the high training cost. He regularly tells me he is doing his dream job and feels very lucky.
There has already been a lot of good advice on here already and I think it starts with sitting down with him and taking the romance out of the job and hitting him with hard facts as to where he may be if it doesn't go to plan.
Good luck!
Last edited by 32SQDN; 14th Oct 2013 at 10:18.