Hundredpercentblabla, Did I said I failed the Easyjet interview ? I was offered a job in Gatwick but I turned it down for personal reasons...

Unfortunately, flying is one of the few professions where not only do you pay for your training (integrated course cadets excluded etc) but it is probably one of the only ones where you could put an ad in Flight along the lines of:

737 EFIS FO required for Euro Ops, JAA CPL/IR minimum, 200hrs TT, you pay us 50K a year, only successful applicants will be contacted.

What are the bets that they would be oversubscribed?

With regards the easyJet TRSS and CTC I am not TRSS but I did a short course at CTC on the A319 having come type rated from another airline off the 320/321/330 these are my observations:

Overall CTC did the best they could whilst working within the easy setup.

easyJet failed to provide operations manuals that are of a useable format for the short course (required a laptop in the hotel to access the books of a CDROM). Therefore we both turned up in ignorance of the easyJet SOPs, fortunately our CTC instructor printed off some useful notes for us to get us started.

The easyJet manuals themselves were confusing with conflictions betyween the various manuls, added to which the trainers in easyJet seem to have some sort of email setup whereby they, the trainers, decide on the finer points of the SOPs between themselves!!

The easyJet course run by CTC is too short to assimilate SOPs to line standard. All credit to our two trainers at CTC that they spent loads of time with us to fill in the gaps, in what is an easyJet course.

The CTC instructors were knowledgeable and helpful, whilst teaching in a relaxed and professional manner. Even after flying the 'bus for several years I learned lots of good stuff. My criticisms would be around the cheapskate short induction and lack of pre-course info.

Line training was a different matter 4 trainers 6 sets of SOPs lots of references to 'secret' emails. On the whole a very poor advert for easyJet as, overall, all the crews on line are very capable and pleasant to fly with, if a little disillusioned . Shame the flight deck management is circa 1979, a man and a boy operation with lots of 'thats what we did on the Boeing'.

I suspect that in terms of TRSS, CTC are filling a need created by the low cost carriers, and in my experience of third party training they may not be perfect but they are a lot better than some including the manufacturers, and there is a job at the end of it.

Capedcrewsaider,

You clearly have little knowledge and much to say.

The airline has grown to a fleet of 57 Airbus aircraft over just under 2 years.

Admittedly there may have been teething troubles with the refresher training and presentation of the SOP's, however I think you will find that these have been addressed.

I believe that the refresher course is now completed in-house, the command course is rumoured to be in-house shortly. There are a new set of SOP's in a few weeks and they are definately not 'man and boy' SOP's. The SOP's are now available in one document. Yes, it is in electronic format, however when I joined, I was clearly told that I would need the facility to view electronic documentation.

Quote "the trainers in easyJet seem to have some sort of email setup whereby they, the trainers, decide on the finer points of the SOPs between themselves!!"

Absolute rubbish!!! The standardisation of trainers has improved significantly of late. From what I understand, the Senior Trainer (ex bmi I think) is keen to keep things both standard and simple. Only hearsay however.

Anyway, what has the training got to do with TRSS and career progression?????????? Surely career progression is driven by things such as expansion, retirements, ability etc.

Or what has TRSS got to do with career progression - nothing!