I've been at CAE for a few weeks now, and I must say that so far I'm very impressed. I'm still in early-days mind, but I'm happy so far. The ground school instructors all seem to be very good, and have actual experience they can refer to, most being ex-RAF flight engineers. Everything is very clean and professional, there are excellent facilities, which are open all the time, and it seems to me a pleasant place to do your ATPL.
You'll probably find your class to consist of self-sponsored trainees, as well as some sponsored lads from Emirates, Air Algerie, possibly CityJet, so there are people of all languages in your classes, which can occasionally halt progress. The Algerians are a good bunch, very friendly if you know them, but some of the Emirates lot literally do not give a toss. They're fully-sponsored, and they get paid for being there, yet some of the Emirates lot do absolutely nothing, fail, get re-coursed, and nobody says a word. I think Oxford are happy to keep them as long as possibly, proving they are being paid!
My only gripes are very small, such as them being slightly unorganised regarding the uniform, ID badges, cards and lanyards, etc, and the other thing, which is the chronic understaffing of the canteen, meaning you have to spend the majority of your breaks in a queue for your lunch. But, apparently this has nothing to do with CAE, it's the contractor, so no can do, its just best to bring your own lunch.
Oh yes, and CAE's
PR machine loves to give the impression there are lots of girls there, let me tell you this isn't the case. Every other photo that CAE have in their brochures has a good-looking girl in it. In reality, there's about three in the entire school, that's it. The French normally like to moan about this, that's all.
If you want any extra information, feel free to PM me, I might be able to help in some way.
