Hello there,
I have been offered a place on the APP course and I am quite likely to take it.
When I first heard about the APP I was quite sceptical like most ppruners are, and I hasten to add it is only natural to be. I conducted plenty of my own research into other options and other Flight Training Organisations. After lots of thought on the matter I have come up with the following conclusions, and these are rather brief cos' I could type forever about my reasons if I wanted to.
- Oxford have decided to go for quality over quantity. That's a fact. They are downsizing the number of people on the APP compared to the numbers that used to be on the integrated course. They are taking roughly 20 per course.
- They have decided to place a selection on the front end of the course, so not allow any old tom, dick or harry on the course. This has major benefits for a few reasons. In brief they are: the airlines know they are getting quality pilots (i.e Oxford have effectivly done the selection for them) so the chances of getting a job (theoretically) go up, this means that more people apply to the APP and this means more business for Oxford. This also gives the banks that Oxford deal with the confidence to loan larger amounts of money that usual to cadets.
- Oxford have modified their course in accordance with airlines suggestions. This is also a fact and I have verified this with BALPA. They have added on various extra-curricular activities (e.g. visits to industry), more multi engine hours and more time in the FNPTII 737-400 sim. They use this sim for the 20 hour MCC at the end of the course but have added an extra 10 hourse of what they call JOT, Jet Orientation Training. Not the same as a JOC, Jet Orientation Course, but is designed to get you way ahead of the game when it comes to sim check rides and type rating sim work.
Finally, I suspect that there will be a shortage of sponsorship programs in the future (other than CTC) and the traditional full sponsorships may be dead altogether. I think this ultimately means that over the next couple of years the airlines are eventually have to start going to FTO's for their new recruits. Why not choose someone off the APP? They gone through an airline standard recruitment, had Oxford training (although Oxford get slagged off for a lot of things, not many people can fault the standard of their ground school and flight training) and the airline doesn't have to pay a penny for the training (well maybe other than a type rating).
Before you start to doubt the standard of the selection bare in mind that it is the same selection the BMI used to use when they sponsored.
As I see it, that's the way it is. There are still doubts in my mind about chances of getting employed, and whether they really are boosted over the chances of those taking other routes.
The APP is brand new and the very first course starts at the end of March. No one can say whether it will be a success, but after quite a lot of thought, I've decided that they've come up with a pretty good (in theory) idea.
There are plenty of routes through self funded training, but dismiss the APP without some consideration at your own risk.
Also, you don't pay for all the training up front, it is done in installments throughout the course, and yes I concede that it is an expensive course. But is does include lots.
Hope this helps, it's even a help to me to get things clear in my mind and set out my reasons logically.
PT