Groundschool was mediocre when I was there. Not appalling, not great, just mediocre. I've seen lots of different groundschools and that is my opinion. OATS were clearly doing a better job last year and if you ever get a chance to have a look at the Bristol notes and CD ROM you'll see instantly how it could be done better...
I don't think anyone at Jerez would take offence at me saying that. There were problems with the leadership of Groundschool compounded by a geographical move, a near total change of staff and the introduction of JAA. I wouldn't have liked to tackle all that.
As for what a school makes per student profit then it ain't much. I used a grand as a very rough and ready low--figure-to-hand. Its not far off though.
If you look at some of the figures bandied about at the time of OATS sale you would start to realise the low profit margins in flight training. Prestwick made a loss for more years than it made a profit... I've heard the management say there that if they give 5 hours Senecca time free to a student then they make a loss on them...
Some parts of training make more money than others. MCC and JOC courses for example being very much more profitable than the flying training side of things.
Cheers,
WWW