Crashdive,
I, like you paid over £50,000 to achieve my frozen ATPL asides loss of earnings for the 13 months I spent at Cranfield. I am still paying it back 6 years later and will be for another 6 years.
If the airline I work for was to go bust and the only way to get another job was to pay £30k for another type-rating I would call it a day and leave the industry.
Your sarcastic digs at my comments about airlines paying for ATPL training as well are not helping anyone here. I, like you decided to pay for my initial training - I have no dispute with that and it was my choice. However, specialised training (type-ratings) costs should be borne by the employer. I can't think of another industry where you have an interview, get the job and then the on-the-job training requires you to dip your hands in your pockets and come up with a further £30k can you ?
The Astraeus scheme is indefensible, opportunistic and a further degradation of our future standards of living. I hope your airline never folds and you are suddenly asked to come up with £30k to get another job because I would imagine you won't like it.