Choosing a flight school in Ontario

[Bacon Inbound]

Good day,

I had a look at the sticky before posting this, and the latest posts are 20 years old. I'm sure a lot has changed since then.

I am starting the process of selecting a flight school for my kid. Other than a quick google search, this is the beginning my search. I got into a different segment of aviation 25 years ago so I am not familiar with the current progression route for pilots. We live in Ontario and while I am not limiting my choices to this province, I understand some of the college programs here may be subsidized by the province? So here are a few questions..

Are some of the colleges here subsidized? I assume that's a good thing? How difficult are they to get into? Pay to Play?

Are college / university programs highly /higher regarded in industry, specifically the airlines, which is where he would like to go.

Are the majority of pilots going the float route? Instructing route? Direct Multi FR route?

At the moment, we don't have a flight school in our town so picking away at it while living at home doesn't look like an option.
What are some other good online resources to have a look at? Internet forums like this one? subreddits? Facebook pages etc? So we can do the best research.

[Red_Comet]

Seneca, Sault and Confederation are the subsidized programs. All good as they're standardized and overseen by both TC and Ontario via the PCC act. Most university/ab-inito programs are decent. Most commercial employers are looking for a known commodity, so these programs are the way to go for young pilots. Unfortunately, the quality of training varies wildly per FTU. My own training was at a small modular FTU and was horrendous in hindsight, and I ended up teaching myself from the ground up during my instructor rating. This is why employers prefer the university/college programs.

Path to airlines varies. Commercial experience is a must, whether it be instructing, medevac, charter, cargo etc. There are pros and cons to each path, but the airline guys seem to prioritize getting hired early for the seniority number. So a college/ab-inito program with a guarantee of a job interview at a regional would be the "optimal" path from that perspective. Keep in mind the industry has returned to pre-covid hiring levels so it will take dedication to stand out as a young grad with 250h. But it can be done, and is still happening albeit very rarely. Can change in the future as retirements pick up pace. Judging by what I'm hearing lately, the average applicant has 1000 hrs for applications to a regional.

Before starting at those programs, it would be a good idea to have him do his REC permit just to get used to the basics of flying. Will prevent a lot of stress as those programs are "up or out", in that there is a fixed quota for training hours per student.

[Red_Comet]

As for resources, all you need is provided for free by one of our forum legends here. This is one of the best online ground schools I've used, and is better than many paid ones because of its concise yet precise content.

http://freepilotgroundschool.ca/

All of his recommended resources can be found in that site.