As someone who has recently started their aviation career and didn't finish school that long ago I'm in a position to say what's going on with people my age as I'm seeing it now.
This is what happens for quite a few wannabe pilots of this era:
1) try to find a way to get around having to finish year 12
2) in most cases that doesn't work and they still need to commit to a particular career path
3) pilot courses are often chosen because in most cases there's no ATAR requirement
4) they think they know what they're getting themselves into when they actually don't
5) type something along the lines of "pilots licence" into google and pick one of the first results that comes up, usually one of the flashy institutions such as Swinburne/Oxford at Moorabin.
5) dismiss the huge cost since "we've got fee-help for that", completely neglecting the fact that it all has to be paid back and is not free money
6) finish the course with $100K+ debt
7) reality hits
8) end of aviation career
I've seen it happen so many times lately it's getting out of control.
Last edited by DancingDog; 24th Feb 2014 at 23:41.