Another blow for wannabe airline pilots. My particular highlight from the job ad is the 295 fee for an interview, laughably described as "a contribution towards the overall cost of L3 CTS running selection".
I remember a quote on the old FPP website, something like this:
"One of the biggest obstacles is the cost of pilot training. British Airways firmly believes this shouldn't be the case"
My question to BA Recruitment is simply, what's changed? Has BA's moral compass now decided that excluding vast swathes of potential applicants based on their financial circumstances is acceptable? Or has the company decided morals can be put to one side in return for the tiniest drop of extra profit? Neither reflects particularly well on the company.
To be fair to the recruitment team, to some extent their hands are probably tied. Finance is senior managements call and that's that. They didn't have to run a scheme like this though. From the outside it looks like Aer Lingus were also refused funding and they seem to have decided it's best not to run one at all than to ask cadets for 120k. Hats off to them. The previous head of pilot recruitment used to post on here from time to time. He seemed genuinley proud of the FPP (quite rightly) and the social mobility/equality aspect that the loan guarantee provided. I'd love to know his (and other BA pilots) views on this scheme but I imagine it's more than their job's worth...
I still hold out hope that BA might see sense and offer up some sort of funding. The reaction on L3's facebook feed has been overwhelmingly negative/cyanical. It's not unthinkable that the tabloids might see this as a good story either, BA tend to be held to a higher standard than the loco's. There's been no big fanfare with the launch, no real publicity as yet. It's almost as if BA themselves are a bit embarassed by the whole affair.
Quote of the day (stolen from a reply on L3's Facebook post):
"Call me a cynic but what we’re seeing is the total exclusion of most of society into a career that is retreating into the preserve of the rich."