Big pistons you absolutely have it right regarding the mechanics of how the whole thing develops Ts and Cs wise if the American model is introduced.
There always has to be some influx of cadets into the system. But not to the ratio we currently have in the UK (and Europe) it is extremely damaging to the crews and potential crews in the industry.
And while ever Joe Bloggs and hundreds of Joe Bloggs mates can get into the right hand seat of the upper tier of jobs with less than 300 hours experience and over 100k of debt, and then be given a job on the ts and cs at ryanair and ezy and the like. The whole thing will continue to regress as time moves on. Terms and conditions will continue to degrade and as sweeping across the board statement then the power of the relationship between employer and employee becomes imbalanced in the employers favour
Just a possible scenario for consideration. Joe Bloggs attends large fto is given the large fto school propoganda the ignore people on here like myself and others who are out of touch/bitter/failed etc etc (in actual fact I have a genuine interest in how the UK job market is continuing to evolve) Joe then pays lots of money gets into debt but manages to secure a right hand B737 or A320 job at either a blue Irish company or a slightly better quality orange UK company. The cadet has made it, and the long and winding path to TRE and big money is on as promised.
Then on this happy path something happens and Joe loses his job (unlikely but entirely possible)
now Joe is in exactly the same position as lots of other guys out of work with possible bags more experience than him and cannot get a foot in anywhere even though ryanair and ezy are recruiting straight from the ftos in numbers (Joe knows this because he was there in recent years he knows how many cadets are been pushed into the system from the bottom) now Joe sees why there is concern out there outside the bubble of the fto propoganda machine
The arguement about experience can be seen from two ways as is clearly identified on this thread, and there are possibly good and bad points to both in actual fact. Yes too much inexperience is obviously not good, not so much on a nice sunny morning hop to majorca and back but more a tricky night into bilbao in foul wx and problems on board and failures. Experience cannot be replaced in this case however to freshen a team of workforce up cadets are bright quick to learn enthusiastic and on the whole happy with their lot
i am very strongly of the opinion that a steady influx of cadets/apprentices/trainees is absolutely essential to any industry. The idea of having all experienced people is absurd and is not actually effective.
The problem we have in the UK is the ratio of cadets going straight into the better jobs in the better machines and with the better salaries, to what I would refer to as the old self improvers coming through all non integrated programs. This ratio has shifted considerably in the favour of the cadet specifically into ryr and ezy and also in other areas.
This ratio shift is not the only cause for the erosion in both the stature of the career as a whole and the ts and cs regression. But it is definately a very very large part of the reason.
The only winners in this are the employers and the ftos.
Colgan wasnt cadet related. But the following action was definately good for the employees. Across the board. Even for cadet Bloggs as he did actually get the right hand seat of the jet, as like everyone else he had the skills and the determination however it just took him a little longer time wise.
I enjoy flying with cadets but just dont think the current set up is doing ANY of the crews out there any favours. Its actually a wonderful set up if you are on or can somehow get on the payroll of one of the ftos, or if you are a performance manager or accountant at one of the airlines.