Originally Posted by
Chris the Robot
I've seen the latest cadet programme offering by one particular airline comes in at nearly £125k plus living expenses. Amazingly, the general public seem to be largely ignorant of the training costs, their best understanding being "it's expensive".
At what point do the airlines get so few quality applicants that they have to reduce training costs or make funding available (I'm aware BA couldn't fill their FPP the other year even with funding)? At what point do the politicians turn around and start regulating how much can actually charged?
Provision of flight training is a business, therefore each individual business can choose exactly how much they want to charge. This is normal practice and something that goes on in every industry, so why would the Politicians get involved in this?
The only real impact Politicians can have is to lobby for student pilots to be regarded as exactly that "students". This would therefore open up things such as student loans and ease the difficulty of borrowing the capital required. This is actually something I have been campaigning for for several years now and I do have the ears of a few politicians and government departments, but like anything in politics...it takes a long time to see any major change.
With regards to the age old discussion about modular v's integrated, everyone will have there own personal reasons for choosing their respective routes. Personally I believe if you have the minerals and the common sense then either route is equally as effective. I went modular at a fairly unknown school out with the UK and in the 4 weeks since completing my training I have successfully passed 2 airline assessments (expecting job offers this week) and currently part way through the process with another 3 airlines.
I had the common sense to know that I would rather create networking opportunities during my training which could ultimately (have ultimately) led to gaining assessments, than to pay through the nose for an integrated "mentored" scheme or similar AQC type course.
It frustrates me the number of schools who sell themselves as "linked to" or "affiliated with" certain airlines. I can name a fair few of these schools who market themselves in such a way, that without doing proper research to the outsider, it comes across as basically a guranteed job at the end. THIS IS NOT THE CASE. Most if not all of these links of affiliations still require you to go through the airline's own selection process at the end. Yes it does help in potentially bypassing the initial screening process however if that's what you're really worrying about then maybe you should look to invest you time in bettering your CV and experience, than spending your money relying on someone else to get you into an assessment. If you are considering a school who market themself as linked or affiliated to an airline, the I strongly suggest phoning that individual airline and questioning exactly how strong that link is and if there is still a selection process to go through at the end. I gurantee you'll be surprised.
It boils down to common sense, if you want to be a sausage then by all means pay £100k+ to the sausage factory and hope you pass the airline assessment at the end of it. Otherwise wise up, do you research, network, develop your CV and put yourself in a situation that gives you confidence that you will pass the assessment. It's all about making yourself stand out from the crowd. At the end of the day everyone you are competing against has exactly the same licence (bar MPL).
Everyone is perfectly capable of creating opportunities for themselves, you don't have to pay for opportunities.