Oleo, thanks for the comments, but no they have not given any such thing as contract. All I have recieved is a written letter from them that they will consider my application upon successful completion of the 737/400 course, and that they were interested in offering me a first officers position.
Just to confirm I rang him up tonight again, the flight ops director, and reiterated to him that was it clear that I will be definately starting with them once I obtained my type rating, he replied yes you have my word and the companies word, and that if nothing else goes wrong I will be working with them. His only concern was that he hoped there would be no beurocratical interference, otherwise he was happy for me to start.