Current CTC Hold Pool

[gratom]

Hi all,

I've just been accepted into the CTC wings scheme and i'm starting to wonder just how large the current hold pool is at CTC and are any of the cadets actually getting placements/jobs at the moment.
CTC do paint a rosy picture of the outlook in 2 years time, i.e. when you're spat out the other end of training, but you cant help but wonder if things are actaully going to change or even if we're going to get that job.
I'm sure that a lot of this has been covered recently but any pointers are greatly received.

Can anyone shed any light on this please?
Thanks.

[99jolegg]

Apparently around 50 people at the moment.

We haven't had an update in a while as to who has gone where but they placed a lot of cadets at the start of the year, around 70 I believe but that could be wrong. How long they'll have a job for nobody knows.

I imagine there will be a slow trickle out of the hold pool but nothing major.

[gratom]

Cheers 99jolegg...

I guess thats not too bad, just nice to hear there is something going on!

[TheBeak]

Put it into perspective, Very few were placed in 2008, the 70 is made up from a big hit into EasyJet comprising 5 or so courses. There was a Thomas Cook placement and that's it. With 180 taken on for the year. And around 14 more a month being taken on (at least that's the goal). At a rate of 0 being placed a month. So that hold pool will build quickly. Don't believe the hype. Try and understand the smaller numbers a little more that add up to make the bigger numbers.

[crzcheck]

i believe more than a few (17?) also went to airlingus, with the majority of other placements going to ezy. i understand the ezy placement are mostly summer contracts but i could be wrong. in general my impression is that ctc is still able to place cadets despite the economy turned sour, with the big difference from the past being a longer wait before you get your type rating, and seasonal contracts as opposed to year-round.

having said that i would recommend taking a serious look at other schools. ctc new zealand, where you'll spend the majority of your training, is in bad shape as we do not have enough instructors for the number of cadets. you will spend entire weeks waiting to be scheduled for a flight, then when you fly you are obviously not current and will need remedial flight, which usually entails a further 3/4 day delay as a meeting with a CFI is needed. result is your training will be mediocre because of lack of consistency and you will end up with a bill, sometime a hefty one, to pay for the additional flights. not only you get fairly bad training, the course itself takes longer than what ctc says. delays are currently running into at least 3/4 months - i.e. the 22 month course becomes 26 months at least. the 60/65k pounds that you think the course will cost will easily turn into 70/75k. those 4 months of delay will cost you interest (500 pounds/month) and lost salary (about 2000/month). in addition, many cadets end up paying 200/300 pounds for the additional training, but more than a few ended up with 2000 pounds bills. there are probably better schools out there

[TheBeak]

No no, the AirLingus guys were ex EasyJet and had to go througha full and thorough selection. And I don't think it was 17. The Ezy contracts are very much only summer contracts.