Any advice from within the industry?
 

Hi, I'm 16 about to enter college with the courses I wanted. I've been aspiring pilot ever since I was about 10 years old now. Ever since I found out about it, all I wanted to do was keep researching and finding out more and more. As my school life comes to an end I'm looking to get a secured loan on a property when I turn 18 and hopefully get into a flight school. My first idea was to get a class 1 medical first and apply to different schools. I was wondering what schools are the best and why. Willing to travel anywhere in Europe.

I'd also like some advice on selection processes and how I should go about achieving my dream.

Much thanks,

Familiarise yourself with and come to terms with the fact that you may have to use plan B which is: Get a job, get a second job, live at home, don't go out drinking, build your credit rating and spend all your money on a medical, PPL and hour building. Expect it to take 3-4 years.

Then start looking into plan A

could possibly start earlier
 

Please also check UK regulations: in many ICAO jurisdictions, you can actually start training for PPL before you reach 18, and then do the exam when you are 18 (in some countries, 17). Could save you some time.
Also, as far as I remember, 18 is the min age requirement for CPL, and 21 for ATPL. But do verify this pls.
All the best and good luck with your flying career.
JRK

Go modular. You can start your PPL training at the age of 16 and do the exam when you turn 17. I don't know if you need to be at least 18 to enroll in an ATPL ground school and start CPL training. There are plenty of excellent modular schools all over Europe, and many are in the UK. You might have a good one next door.

1 piece of advice. Do not secure a loan on any property to fund your flight training. I know people who got chopped at integrated schools having funded the whole course on a secured loan and were left to find opportunities for themselves.

Go modular, you're young and have loads of time. You'll have no debt and better financial security. You'll also have life experience which will help you with the non technical skills needed as pilot. Good luck.

I would go modular but most pilots I've spoken to say that you have less of a chance of getting into an airline after modular. That's why I was leaning towards the intergrated side of things.

Are modular students at a disadvantage when applying for airlines?

Modular is a lot cheaper, it's just getting an interview with an airline which is the hardest part apparently.

Loads of BS. You must have asked for opinions to pilots that went down the overpriced, expensive integrated way that have to justify their huge amount of waste of money. I went modular, spent almost a third of what I would have spent had I trained at one of the big integrated schools and have a well-paid job with a great employer. Even better, I have never been in debts. And my school, a popular modular school, could almost be defined as a pilot factory given the number of pilots they have trained over the last few years and 90%+ of us got jobs at established airlines. Some first became instructors before joining the airlines. The training was good and the owners were excellent and if there was an issue, they would take the matter in their own hands. At an integrated school, I would have just been a number.
And one very well known and big European airline has picked this modular school for their mentored program, with only 2 other schools in Europe.

Ah right ok. Thank you for telling me I'll look deeper into the modular course and try and get something sorted out. Does anybody know a cheapish place in the uk that do PPLs?

Any aeroclub will do.

I just need to find a decent school with good ratings for my PPL. Even if I choose to go modular, I can just carry on from a PPL, the same as intergrated, I can still do an intergrated course with a PPL.

You are making this too complicated. If you're biased in favour of integrated training, just do it from zero.
Some academies won't accept you on their integrated program if you hold a PPL or a PPL with more than 60 hours.

There are so many different opinions around the community. By the time I've finished my A Levels something might come up. Modular does seem like the better option but I'll speak to some other people and see what they think. Cheers for the advice.