Dutchie - The original question concerned the future of the MCC in the light of ATP's AQ course. Perhaps you should have read and digested this and read the replies more carefully before hurling personal and offensive remarks around. It is generally found that such posts say more about the character of the poster than about anyone he/she is attempting to attack.
To get back to the original question. It is naive to believe that any independent training provider is in the game for any reason other than to make money, the welfare of the trainee comes second - by how far depends on the provider. The AQ course is a response to similar (JOC) courses already run by OAT, BAe and WMU which have long been accepted by CAA the as fulfilling the requirements of the MCC course as well as preparing one for the airlines. Hence the fact that both BA and Air Lingus use such courses. ATP have also been running a similar course for BA, they are now re-naming it and marketing it to everyone.
I'm sure it will be a perfectly splendid course when it is finally approved, as are all the others, but there is nothing unique about it and it is not a pre-requisite for a multi-crew type rating - the MCC course, however, is.