I must congratulate Spang. Finally a person such as my self who have been thru OATS and spent a mere fortune - in excess of 75K and nothing more than a plastic book to show for it.
To all those who are considering starting an ATPL course, I would reiterate Spangs comment. Do research!! Ask the awkward questions, like how many of your students have got jobs recently, because I'll tell you it's hardly any.
And like Spang said it's not down to how good you are either. I know of people who have recently got jobs with with an Irish carrier who I would go as far as to say where OK pilots - failed the odd flight exam & ground school, but most definatly not the good or great students. Yet the ones who never failed a flight exam or ground school and have gleaming reports are still strugguling even after sending out 50, 100, 150 etc CV's.
The OATS name is far from as good as it used to be. For example look at the Ryan Air application, they no longer ask where you got your FATPL from!
One point/question I would make here (and any one considering to off load a vast some of money should be asking is - whats the first time pass rate for IRT's? At Oxford it's rather low. As things currently stand OATS statistics are bring down the National average!!
The last comment I would like to make is this. Even though I had some good times at OATS, if I had to do it all again and I know what I know now, then no I would not do it at Oxford.
Each to your own. You pay your money and you wait and see.