I expect that I am not the only one to notice the irony of seeing the "Pilot Career Lives" tweets on the right of the screen proclaiming "What a day" as I read this thread with its topic of BALPA saying "don't train" etc.
Be interested to hear from Ian or someone virtually attending the careers two day event whether the current situation is being tackled head on or swept under the virtual carpet?
From my own experience I started during the post Gulf War aviation crisis (BA cadets working as cabin crew) then was laid off after 9-11 and took 50% part-time in 2008 to save colleagues' jobs. Fortuitously, I could see things were headed were I didn't want to go, so took early retirement a couple of years ago, so now I'm settled in my new life of aviation maintenance and hearing some real horror stories from old friends of woe and ruthlessness from restructuring airline managements.
I am also doing some instructing at the professional school next door, so can see the modular guys are keeping their heads level and simply adjusting their sights accordingly, this ties in with my overall view that there "never" is a good or bad time to go through the system, you just have to do it if the drive is there and make it happen. I remember giving this advice to Andy R when he got on this rocky route and he showed perfectly that not all roads lead to an airliner left hand seat if you stay adaptable and determined.
So I suppose it looks like we have come full circle already and perhaps my own self-improver route of thirty years ago, which became eclipsed by the full time cadets has now morphed into the modular route as the best flexible way to achieve your flying ambition and still get there: hell or high water!
P.S> Apologies to those locked down, looking skywards, but the last two nights of night rating training have been glorious up there!!
Fingers crossed the restrictions will lift for everyone to enjoy it up there again soon.