Me again, with a few facts!
I qualified through a company sponsored scheme, and 2 A levels at grade C was the minimum required standard of education. There were over 10000 application forms sent out (back in the days before internet!) and about 2000 of these were put through an extremely rigorous selection process before about 150 people were offered training places on my intake. At the time, university was still state funded, and many of my colleagues were degree educated, but the cost of flying training is immense, and the pilot always pays (even if the company is sponsoring you.) Theoretically my training was free, but I then spent the next 5 years on a much reduced trainee salary, so the company got their pound of flesh out of us. These days the cost of a degree means that most wannabe pilots go straight into flying school - why waste £10000s on an unnecessary degree? A certain level of boxes ticked on paper or impressive list of academic achievements is not required, but a certain persistence and common sense is essential. A major part of the selection procedure was psychological profiling, which gave a better indication of 'the right sort' than academic record. The trainees on my intake were aged between 19 and 28, with the mean age being 23-24. No prior flying experience was required. In fact, anything more than a PPL was not welcomed, as it gave sufficient time to learn bad habits.
Once I'd been offered the place, I was expected to present myself for training 3 weeks later, which was a bit of a challenge since I had a professional job with a proper notice period, a mortgage and a husband all to make arrangements for. Flying school was nowhere near my home. In fact, within weeks I would be posted to another continent for a few months to carry out flying in more consistent weather conditions.
Before we were allowed near even a little plane though we did our first groundschool exams. 6 exams on everything from principles of flight, engines, fire protection, hydraulics, to electrical systems etc. Then we carried out 2 months of flying in single engine trainers and simulators followed by flying exams. Then more groundschool, this time air law, flight planning, navigation, weather, morse code - 9 exams in all, taken over 2 days. The exams wer presented in such a way that you had just enough time to carry out the required exercise (e.g. Plot a navigational route, calculate required fuel or decode a weather forecast) and answer the questions asked - you either got most of the exam correct or made a complete pigs ear, no in between. The CAA have a pass mark, but the airlines required higher marks than these, and all first time passes.
Then back to flying - exams in night flying, instrument flying, twin engine flying. 6 flying tests in total. At the end of this, we had been training for 13-18 months depending on the trainee. Then a change of school, and starting to fly jet simulators and operate as part of a multi-pilot crew. All of this was relentless in pace, in the 15 months it took me to get through I had 1 week off. I lived on a weekly allowance of £30. I had no savings as I was young and not from a well off family. My husband got a lodger to help pay the mortgage. To cap it all, my sponsoring airline had no job for me for 5 months after all of this. Eventually I was told I had a posting 200 miles from home (which was rather frustrating as I actually only lived 7 miles away from an airport they operated flights out of but gave those postings to other trainees.)
The next stage was a type rating. More groundschool covering one specific aircraft type (the previous groundschool had been non-type specific.) 3 more written exams. A minimum of 60 hours in a jet simulator, learning to take off, land and carry out a wide range of manoeuvres to be carried out in emergencies - over and over and over again. More exams in the simulator - a mock exam and then 3 long days of real exams and finally you have an ATPL, an airline pilot licence. Then you do safety and emergency procedure training, how to open doors both normally and in an emergency, you get to jump down an evacuation slide and bob about in a pool on a life raft. Another exam. Basic medical training, fire fighting, hijacking and bomb scare procedure. Then you go back in the sim again - 4 hours of landings. Just landings. To check that you are ready for base training. Then you are finally allowed to touch a real jet aircraft for the first time.
I went to a deserted airport in France for my base training. This is the bit where you have to produce 6 adequate landings. I have a degree in a medical science subject, and reckon by this point I had spent about as much time working towards this moment as I did to get to the first term of my final year of my degree. Only rather than doing it over more than 2 years, I had done it in less than 18 months. You work bloody hard. Wrt the 6 landings, no one (not even the most capable pilot I know) managed it in just 6 landings. But that wasn't a problem.
The next flight was with passengers. Truly nerve wracking. We all had a trainer and a safety pilot with us for these flights. I haven't seen this series, but we certainly did not make any kind of announcement about it being a pilot's first flight, that would be tacky and unprofessional. I had a trainer for every flight for the next month, then at the end of that... another exam! The last one, the exam that qualified me to fly passengers as a professional pilot.
But exams are never far away. Each year we all have to spend 4 days in the simulator retraining and refreshing emergency and non standard procedures and learn about new developments, carry out 2 simulator checks each year, undergo an emergency procedures groundschool refresher exam, renew our medical, and undergo a route check on a flight with passengers every other year. I am not a fan of exams, I find them stressful but they go with the job. Otoh, flying to the Caribbean also goes with the job, so not all bad!
These days, when I change aircraft type, it is true I do a classroom course, a couple of weeks of simulator and then straight out with passengers on it the first time I fly a new type. I've had the training, it's all very doable.
It's not an easy career to get into, but it is as rewarding a career as I can think of. I wouldn't want to do anything else.