Former CP here.
The thing with College programer's (CP's) is they are worked full time hours with no benefits or holiday pay. Additionally up until the recent Union contract signing they were getting paid the federal minimum wage which was in most cases much less than part time or full time cast starting pay was for many positions. This lead schedulers to prioritize scheduling to College program cast.
DID I think the program helped me? Sort of. Having disney on your resume is a great conversation starter but beyond that it will not get you a job.
Agreed.
I also did the program and I certainly found it enjoyable, enough to do it a couple of times. But
valuable? Ehh. Maybe something that gets touched upon in an interview, but certainly not as valuable as an internship in the field of my actual profession would be. I think the word is getting out, to employers and the universities that endorse the program alike, that what is billed as "professional experience" is really comparable to any service industry job most CPs could easily find just about anywhere.
I think that's the biggest problem with the DCP, how it is marketed. Many students go in expecting a professional experience, to learn about what makes the company great, or the opportunity to move up in the company. But the true professional opportunities are scarce, beyond a few "how to write a resume" classes. Where's the tour of Team Disney Orlando, or the professional career fair allowing CPs to meet the people in the fields they want to work in? There aren't any.
The training? A four or five hour course at Disney University, giving you a VERY abridged history of the company, lots of stressing the importance of their safety standards, and a tour of Magic Kingdom's utilidors. Instructions in actual guest service go as far as the famous two-fingered-point; beyond there it's the manners your mama taught you. After that you have a few days where you learn to make change or properly clean the counters you're working on. A Keys to the Kingdom tour provides as much insight into the company.
And opportunities to move up in the company? Depends on what you mean by moving up... Many CMs do stay and take on seasonal and part-time jobs, and if they do them long enough, they may be lucky enough to get promoted to that full-time job that comes with *gasp* health insurance. That's right, after years of hard work your table-bussing or tram-driving skills now are rewarded with health insurance. After several more years of hard work, you *might* get a job as coordinator (now making a few dollars MORE than minimum wage), and if you really, really work hard and stick around long enough, you MIGHT even become a manager. If a job, you know, opens up somewhere.
A LOT of DCP students I talked to got frustrated with the program and found Disney's promises about it misleading. Many even dropped out or "self-termed". If you're looking for a few months of free park admission and lots of social interaction with other Disney fans, you got it. But a professional experience it ain't, except maybe on paper (provided the guy reading your resume doesn't actually ask what you DID at your job, which they always seem to).
And the way Disney uses the program to avoid holiday pay, and deprive full-time employees of longer shifts, is undeniable.
EDIT: If you're considering the DCP, please don't be turned off by it just because of this post. I did the program several times and LOVED it. But I also didn't go in any of those times (well... after the first one) with professional intentions. Just do your research and know what you're getting into.