CTC - Who gets a job?

[g1344304]

Since there was a seperate thread about gaining employment upon leaving OAT, i thought there should be a seperate one for CTC

I always thought CTC was the best option as they place you with an airline before they complete your final training and I liked the financial security side too, however they do have a clause that states:

"Cadets who are not selected by an airline during training enter the holding pool with Wings ATP entrants following the intermediate phase of training. The bond of a cadet in this position is retained by APL and the normal arrangement is that you would enter an airline on a "direct entry" salary scale, from which you will be required to make your bank loan repayments."

How many students does this happen to? Are there any figures? For all the applicant knows, 90% could end up with the loan on their own shoulders rather than getting placed with an airline.

Are there any CTC students or graduates who can shed light?

[BitMoreRightRudder]

CTC have placed every graduate of their Wings/ATP schemes into an airline. There may be a delay in a holding pool waiting for a Type Rating but CTC still offer the next best thing to a guarantee of a job.

[akindofmagic]

Please do not take this as gospel; there are no guarantees with CTC or anyone. That said: if you are on the cadet scheme, you will be working to a fairly rigid timetable. It would be very unusual for a cadet to have to wait before embarking on the AQC and/or type rating, upon completion of CPL/IR training at Bournemouth/Hamilton. Therefore, assuming that you pass the CPL and IR skills tests, you would more than likely start your AQC after a relatively short period of leave that will already have been built into the programme. That is the situation as I understand it.
We were told at the induction day, IIRC, that cadets do not wait in the hold pool. Perhaps someone a little nearer the end of the course than I am could shed some further light on the situation.

[trainee99]

The longest delay I know of having been through the CTC Wings scheme is a total of 6 months mainly due to the training capacity of a partner airline - not a big deal in the scheme of things bearing in mind that your job is still there. For the ATP scheme, I think some of the guys have waited in the hold pool for a comparable time, but generally it's less time than that I think, but more frustrating for the ATP guys whose delay tends to all come between aqc and type rating as opposed to wings whose delay can be padded out between leaving nz and starting bournemouth, bournemouth and starting aqc, aqc and starting type rating etc (a month here and there). I don't think that anyone who has succesfully completed either course has not got a job within these timescales with a CTC partner airline. Also, as far as I'm aware, once CTC select you, being picked up by a partner airline is then more of a question of demand and on a first come first served basis. The airlines don't subjectively pick certain people out of the hold pool, and as I understand it, the ATP cadets are 'recruited' by CTC based on their estimated demand from partner airlines, thus a wait in the hold pool will be because the demand from partner airlines has changed, and at that point CTC slow or stop recruiting to empty out their hold pool - it doesn't just keep on growing at a rate of 'x' per month. Perhaps someone can correct me if i'm wrong about this. My experience is of the CTC Wings course and I've spoken to a number of ATP guys on my way through AQC and Type Rating.

[g1344304]

thanks for the info trainee99! WHat was your experience at CTC like? what are the facilities, course structure, instructors like? This may soudn like a stupid question but is there internet available while in NZ?

[trainee99]

Hi. I wrote a good long reply yesterday only for my internet connection to die and lose it all. So in summary - my experience with CTC was very good - first rate facilities and pretty much all of the instructors were very good, especially the uk ones - there are plenty of great instructors in Hamilton too though and most importantly no old school - make you feel stupid for making silly mistakes ones - just a good professional atmosphere. I got delivered to the right hand seat of an A319, so no problems there - although it was 6 months late due to weather, training capacity problems both in CTC and my current airline. No real problems there either and they did look after us, but they didn't have to and it's accepted that it's the airline and not the cadet that is the customer - you're CTC's product, unlike with any other FTO - i think that this has it's pros and cons form a trainee perspective. I think that the issues we faced (apart from weather of course) have been resolved now, but aviation being aviation, I'm sure there will always be others. Besides, it did mean that in NZ, by working hard, some gaps appeared between training phases and I got to go to the south island twice as well as plenty of skiing, surfing and generally seeing the country - i doubt there's much opportunity to do this now - maybe someone in Clearways now can give a better idea. The accomodation out there was fine, but their new place is apparently fantastic and as far as i know there is an internet connection which is still the continuous subject of contention with people trying to go solo to bust the download limit etc! Course structure for us was fine, it did the job of course, but while we were going through, they often changed bits which was a bit frustrating - it was all aimed at making the course integrated which i think it officially is now so maybe it's a bit more settled.. I think, and reading these forums just reinforces, that going for a flying job you have to give yourself the best chance you can of getting a position at the end of it - there's always risks and if you don't meet the standard ctc do occasionally drop cadets and then there's potential to be left in debt like with any other course, but you will get a job if you get through so i think that CTC or at least a mentored scheme of some sort is a must.. Feel free to pm me if you want more info.. t99