Tagged Scheme
john smith makes some very sobering and very valid points, as they speak from a position of experience and knowledge within the industry then prospective pilots would do well to heed their advice.
While the airline tagged courses are the best option at the moment there are absolutely no guarantees linked to them. The cadets will bear the financial risk as very few if any airlines now pay for the cadet training (pre 911 they used to) and they will be under constant pressure during the course to maintain minimum standards set by the airline (eg 1st time passes in all written exams with a high average and 1st time passes in all skills tests on minimum hours) failure to maintain the required standard will mean removal from the scheme.
Assuming the cadet finishes the course to the required standard and graduates, there will be no guarantee of a job with the airline, if the airline happens to be laying pilots off at the time the cadet graduates from training they might be offered work in another department or just abandoned.
If another recession or another 911 happens (god forbid) the airline will reserve the right to cease the tagged scheme leaving cadets high and dry. When 911 happened there were cadets for several airlines (including BA) going through their courses and many were dropped almost immediately.
Finally even integrated FTOs with tagged cadets on course can got bust, not so long ago we had PTC and Cabair go down with all students (tagged or non-tagged) losing all money paid to the school. At the time there were Flybe cadets at Cabair who had the following choice:
Move to another FTO (approved by Flybe) and self-fund the remainder of their training (which they’d already paid Cabair for) and then join Flybe.
Forfeit their place on the course and walk away from professional flying.
Not a pleasant situation especially if you have paid up front for an integrated course and you’re only a few months in when the FTO goes under and you have to find the money to fund another complete course of training.
I have read elsewhere on PPRuNe some speculation from usually well informed contributors (not trolls) that at least one of the big three integrated schools is in serious financial trouble. I don’t know which one or how true the speculation is but it was written by more than one contributor who normally contributes reliable information from inside the industry.
Any tagged scheme cadet contract will be cleverly written by lawyers who listened at school and will place all risk squarely on the cadet with 100 ways to be removed from the course and only 1 way to get through to the RHS of an aircraft.
Despite this the cadet schemes are viewed as such wonderful opportunities which is more a sad reflection on the current recruitment market and opportunities for ab-initio trainees.