Tailscrape - but I/we/you have, effectively, already paid for most of the training - or did I / you miss something ?
E.g. In my own instance it cost me £56,000, i.e. just to get the basic minimum qualification(s) to allow me to even apply to an airline for potential employment, i.e. the fATPL – and that’s a figure which, at today’s rates, is nearly three times more than the cost of a type-rating ( and back when I did it, that figure was more akin to four or five time as much as the cost of a type-rating ! ).
So as you can see, the airline(s) didn't pay for most of my training, I DID ! – but I’m not complaining, as that was the price of wanting to join a pretty exclusive club – one in to which I would likely have remained uninvited.
Of course I could have waited for a full sponsorship to come along, but some how I get the feeling that I would still be waiting.
So I ( we / you ) subsidise the airlines because I ( we / you ) want the job too much to wait in vain hope.
It's all very long odds, and some people prefer to shorten them as much as possible - see mad_dog's post above.
However, if you can't afford to shorten the odds then you just have to wait, and trust to good fortune, like I did ( and boy, did I have to wait a long time ! ), in the hope that the market improves and that one doesn’t become ‘to old’, or hit by the old chestnut of ‘age versus experience’, in the process.
Veritably you pays yer money, and you takes yer choice - you hope - but don't forget that there are loads, yes LOADS, of people out there who’ve paid their money, devoted years to the cause and still have no airline job ( and never will have one – hardly a Bright investment – and something which very nearly happened to me ).
The attrition rate is appalling, but one doesn’t get reminded too often of that fact ( at least not usually until it's too late and the money is spent ) - and at least what I suggested in my previous post would stop that from happening. Ah, but then that would also shut many of us out of the opportunity to get into the business, wouldn't it ?!
That said, Bond do put candidates through a pre-type-rating course assessment, to help ensure some level of protection from wasting of time and money by all concerned - maybe you should come along and see how you do ( I'll see if I can get you a special rate
)