This is the kind of statement that drives me nuts.
In addition to this one "Andrew King has traded the left seat of Hainan Airlines aircraft for the cab of a harvester and he’s looking forward to getting back to work. “They’ve recognized the transferability of the skillset of an airline pilot, someone who could operate heavy equipment and learn large amounts of information quickly and remain proficient,” he said.
So I believe the opposite could be true, i.e. you can have a farmer in command of an airliner with minimum training since they are used to the GPS.