Glad to see you sticking up for yourself Fogbound but as you say it yourself - short time in the industry and you've seen the good, bad and he ugly.
Thing is that those in your position know about the con men and blaggards far sooner than our wannabees. Sadly it is us that stands up for the students and not the FTO industry. Some may remember my words a couple of weeks ago regarding incest being rife. Don't drop the cowboys in the guano because you may have to work for them next year. How else to you explain the outright lies prevalent regarding visa's for training in the states?? The schools in non JAA states claiming otherwise??
As a natural sceptic I read a number of posts on PPRuNe due to which I would agree with your argument against 'hidden agendas' and also your comment about not stirring up too much trouble.
With reference to the above quote from Towers, the reason I am doing my job and the reason I can do my job is that I have been there recently, and I appreciate the decisions that wanabes need to make. I was one of the first few batches to go through the JAA rigmarole and have seen it develop and refine. Aviation is an ever changing industry and the past 18 months have seen major changes. Help and advice from the 'old boys' is usually invaluable but as I and Alex Whittingham have pointed out, a lot has changed in the working and operational environment, thus training has needed to change to meet this.
Those out there about to take a tentative look into training more often than not do not realise the questions which need to be asked. The prime example is in the advertised prices. I can make a full ab-initio course look like it will only cost approximately £24,000, when sensibly the average student will be looking more around the £40,000 mark. For those who have not flown before and are wanting to learn, simple things like approach and landing fees may be over looked. Licence conversion costs if training is viewed cheaper overseas. The words I hate to hear are "i'm looking for the cheapest training" If you fall into this misinformed trap then it may prove more costly in the long run.
Those of us with some knowledge (however long or short the experience) should not be trying to dupe the people who come to us for advice.
Over the months I have spent thousands on advertising for my company here with PPRuNe. This is the way advertising should be done. Rather than ambiguous statements on open forums, wannabes can get your exact information from your company, no misinterpretation etc.