ATPL ground school UK
 

Hi all. I'm looking to do the ATPL ground school on a full-time basis somewhere in the UK. I am currently looking at London Metropolitan University but their start dates don’t suit me and I’m looking for somewhere that I can do some leisure flying at weekends.

My question is: can anybody recommend anywhere that I can do the ground school? I have done a search but didn’t find anything that I was looking for (before I get slagged of!!!:\). Thanks.

This CAA document contains the complete list of schools which are approved to offer the course - both the Residential and the Distance Learning options.

There aren't all that many choices, so it shouldn't take you too long to contact all of them and make up your own mind which suits you best.

FFF
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Hi,

Don't know where abouts you are but I can highly recommend BCFT at Bournemouth.

www.bournemouthcommercialflighttraining.co.uk

Cheers, Tri

Thanks guys. I have narrowed it down to EPTA or BCFT. Since they are both located at the same airport, location and accommodation doesn't help in deciding.

Anybody been to either school got any opinions?

Thanks;)

And EPTA are about half the price of BCFT which doesn't help either as it renders more questions than it does answers.

The reason EPTA is able to offer such a low price is because we are able to obtain EU grants for our students. A number of other schools tried to prevent us from doing this but they failed. They are probably now trying to arrange grants for their own students but this will take some time to do. This is because to do so the school must enter into a partnership with a College of higher/further education.

The only real question is whether or not you wish to claim your government grant.

Nice bit of PR there Keith. You didn't sell used cars in a former life did you?

Seriously though, any catches to getting the reduced groundschool rate. For example are there any age barriers at all for those of us who have shall we say more life experiences :)

I don't think anyone would want to stop students receiving grants, that would be ridiculous. Most schools would take the view that, if grants can be legitimately claimed, they would like their students to get them too. If the grant goes through the school it could be used to reduce the course prices.

Which is pretty much what LGU has been doing for years.

Everything that I said in my previous post is true. In the past only Glasgow and LGU students enjoyed these grants, but EPTA students now do so. Hopefuly all schools will eventually get their acts sorted out, and all students will benefit.

The only condition that must be satisfied to obtain the grant is that you must be an EU citizen.


ALEX,
At least one school has tried to stop our students from getting the grants. And yes it was a ridiculous thing to do, but they did it anyway.

Indeed, and all credit to them. LGU and Glasgow have been historically able to claim grants because they're non-profit making organisations. If EPTA's grant method is legit we would all be very pleased to follow their example. At the moment EPTA's prices haven't changed since before the grants. Presumably you'll be chopping the price by £1600 then Keith? Or have you just trousered the grant money?

Can recommend Oxford. Am here at the mo on the APP, having a cracking time and the books are very very good indeed. Not cheap, but why go somewhere else and use Oxford's books when you could come here and have the people who wrote them explain it all to you??? Very easy to understand what's in them and much nicer all round than the other stuff on the shelves at the moment. Have worked through a couple of titles before now and they are not nearly as user friendly as the OAT stuff.

Ta ta

I am looking for information regarding the residential ATPL theory course at London Metropolitan University as compared to other organisations across the UK.

Specifically, I want to know if it really makes a difference where the course is taken, or if all the organisations give an equally good education. Moneywise, London Metro has one of the cheapest offering.

What are the facilities like? How much does it cost to live in London for a period of six to seven months? Where in London is the campus located, and near which general aviation airports?

ALEX,

As you are aware the CAA have looked at this and they are perfectly happy with it. If it were not legitimate they would have stopped it by now.

As you are also aware, our price for full time groundschool was approximately £4000 prior to the introduction of the grants. we did do a special offer at a reduced price for students who were prepared to sign up with EPTA for their entire training. But the new reduced price includes no such restrictions.

All EU students can get the reduced price even if they only wish to do the groundschool with us. If you really believe that we are as you say "trousering the money" perhaps you could explain why our price is about half that of BCFT.

If on the other hand you consider special offers to be standard prices, then presumably your offer of free courses to the pprune fund means that this is now your standard price to all students.
I must confess that it is very good value if it is true.

The simple fact is that by obtaining government grants, we are able to offer our courses at vastly reduced prices. This can only be to the benefit of students. Unfortunately this has ruffled the feathers of those schools that have tried but failed to introduce the system.

As I said earlier, hopefully all schools will eventually adopt the scheme. But I suspect that some will continue to try imply that the system is somehow illegimemate until (of course) they manage to get their own arrangements in place.

Now wouldn't your time be better spent organising grants for your own students instead of attacking EPTA. With the benefit of the grants you could probably reduce your price to a couple of hundred pounds.

The CAA are notoriously poor policemen. Remember SFT?

EPTA have never advertised courses for more than £1995, plus VAT. You've always sold the course as a loss leader.

I do, however, clearly remember you making a huge fuss about how the course price was going to be reduced because of the grant. Where is it?

I also remember you taunting me because I wasn't clever enough to figure out how you got a grant. Now, when you start that sort of stuff you're chucking your cap in the ring. Fair cop, I'm not the brightest bulb in the box but, if it's legit, I'll figure it out sooner or later and then you will see a real price reduction in distance learning courses. All information gratefully received. I imagine you're having to pay Bournemouth & Poole College a cut to use their name but there should be a fair bit left over to bring the prices down, which you have not.

Your parent company, CABAIR, have not adopted this revolutionary idea. Why not?

"Now wouldn't your time be better spent organising grants for your own students instead of attacking EPTA."

Interestingly, both Alex and Send Clowns (BCFT) have spent their time on this forum helping me along the way on my studying for the ATPL exams. Sending me, as a non-student, a PM with advice and even offering me further help is really an attitude appreciated by me. If this is a reflection of the schools you can't go wrong by enrolling in either one.

ALEX,

The standard EPTA groundschool price has always been in the region of £4000. This has been the case from the very first course and is still the case today.

Under the old (pre-grants system) a reduced price was charged to students who signed up for the whole groundschool/CPL/IR/MCC package. But those who wanted only the groundschool paid the full price.

Since the introduction of grants there is no requirement to sign up for the whole package. All EU students who sign up for the groundschool benefit from the grants, such that the price is vastly reduced. In effect the EU pays about half of the course price.

But the grants are provided by the EU and are available only to EU citizens. All non-EU citizens must pay the full price which is approximately £4000. I use the word "approximately" simply because I do not have the exact figures here in my home.

Evidence of all of these facts has been provided to the ASA in response to your complaint. Indications are that your complaint is about to be rejected, just as your previous complaint to the CAA was rejected. Hopefully you will then move on and start working to get the grants for BGS students.

Readers should understand that those schools which have not yet made arrangements to obtain the grants, have a vested interest in trying to denigrate the system.....until of course they are able to obtain the grants for their own students.


MARTIN
It is certainly true that ALEX and CLOWNS provide a lot of free advice and help in these forums. If you do a search you will find that I and various other people do exactly the same. This is not an indication of the quality of any particular school. We do it quite simply because we want to help students and we enjoy doing so.

If you are going down the DL route then bristol.gs wins hands down, they have come highly recommended by several pilot friends and by a current student I'm mates with.

I work better in a lecture type environment so I chose a Residential course.

It is not my place to slate EPTA because I am not a student there but I did look into them as well as BCFT when I was making my choice. As they say, first impressions count and on the day I visited both the schools my mind was made up.

This is why I chose BCFT:

-Smaller class sizes (Max 15 rather than 20+)
-Genuine interest from the instructors in ME rather than my wallet
-Wasn't whisked off into an office by a sales rep a soon as I entered the premises
-Had a chance to chat alone with the current students to see what they thought of the place
-Wasn't given an irrelevant tour of European Aviation's flight simulator hall
-Chatted informally with an instructor and was shown the training manuals
-Didn't have a load of building work going on right outside the classrooms!

BCFT are well worth the extra dough IMHO, and I have yet to find fault with them

Tri :ok:

Thanks for all the replies. I would really like some further views from anybody who is currently or has done the ground school at EPTA or BCFT. I shall be taking a visit to each of them soon so I would like all the info I can get.

Thanks again:ok:

Im looking at the same possibilities as Fergal20 on BCFT and EPTA, i am planning on visiting both but since I stay in Scotland, its a long way down, dont know wether to make it a cross country flight for experiance or drive! any views would be appreicated too.