From the various recruitment stories I've heard in the last 6 months it seems that there are one or two companies who favour Integrated over Modular. British Airways' Self-Sponsored Pilot Scheme was only open to
Integrated students. However Robin Glover, BA's Flight Manager Pilot Recruitment recently stated that a small number of modular students were in the process of being selected (before 110901) in order to assess the capabilities of the non-integrated. The problem with modular is that up until now standards have varied between individuals and that the integrated route provided people of a known quantity, who were therefore a lower risk.
Since the implementation of JAR there are a large amount of people who are doing the modular route back-to-back which provides the consistency that an integrated course offers. This is sensible for most people who have a PPL + a few hours joyriding/IMCing/Twinning as it removes the need to start from scratch. The CPL course will hopefully remove all of the bad habits supposedly gained while hours building in Florida etc. Hence, upon completion of the course both sets of people will have a CPL/IR, Frozen ATPL and low hours. Hopefully the airlines will follow BA's experiment and give the modular people a chance.
Many modular pilots used Brymon as their launchpad, but since it has been placed under the BA Citiexpress umbrella their last round of recruitment excluded those with low-hours from non-integrated courses (although I believe there were the odd few who were allowed to proceed through to the interview stage, presumably as an experiment).
The ATP Academy don't discriminate between the two groups, neither do Britannia or the handful of other airlines who have taken on the low-houred in the last year.
Bottom Line(s):
If I were you I would risk going modular, and keep my fingers crossed that by the time the industry upturn occurs (roughly when you will be finishing whichever course - if you start soon) the airlines will all have come to their senses and appreciate the modular more.
All a lottery really innit.
sB