In the 1970s, fast-jet pilots learned to fly the Gnat at Valley, then did a short Hunter refresher course before going to TWU at Chivenor or Brawdy. The courses at Valley were very much 'Training Command' and a lot of time was occupied learning how to stop the Gnat trying to kill you! There was NO 'tactical' formation flying; indeed, the TWUs wanted to teach that from a clean sheet.
Moving to TWU, you went into Strike Command. No more read-and-white trainers, you flew green and grey fighters - and the ethos was very different. Hard work, it is true, but very rewarding with lots of low level, simulated attack profiles, live strafe, bombing and rocketing at Pembrey range.
But when the Hawk appeared on the scene, it replaced Gnat/Hunter at Valley AND Hunter at TWU. A lot of savings could therefore be made in type conversion. But Valley was still 'flying training' and TWU was still 'tactical training' That changed further when the rather despised 'mirror image' scheme started, Chivenor closed and everything went to Valley. Which meant a lot of wasted time with detachments at St Athan for weaponeering at nearby Pembrey.
Along came more technologically advanced front line jets and training on the Hawk T2. 'Fast jet driving tests' apart, flying the aircraft isn't as demanding as the Gnat / Hunter as it is safer. has vastly better cockpit ergonomics and systems and live weaponeering is no longer deemed necessary. So no waiting for the cloud to lift at Pembrey any more, or for someone to shoot the flag off the back of Puddy's Meteor ending the air-to-air range sortie at Hartland . Synthetic training systems are in greater use - all we had at Brawdy was a Hunter sim and bits from crashed aircraft nailed together to teach gunsight control etc.! Low level planning now uses an automated system rather than paper maps and gorilla snot glue; also I would doubt whether 'sight piccy' drawings are necessary given the HUD symbology now available. No-one could possibly prefer the faff of sorting out half a dozen Hunter cine mags on the way to the range, of that I'm sure!
So yes, the new era training is hugely different to that of previous years. Whether students and staff really interact in the air as they did in the programme I do not know. Lucky blighters will eventually fly F-35B or Typhoon; the failure rate is quite reasonable these days but hard work is still needed, albeit with a different emphasis.
It's just such a pity that the RAF has been forced into MFTS though - but I suppose that'll give instructors greater opportunities to gain instructional experience than if they were merely biding their time champing at the bit to get back to the front line.