in civilian flying is the lower standard of candidates, that can not be just scrubbed if they fail. If they are too tough with students they will struggle to keep them and they will move to other flying schools.
One student came to our (civvy) flying school, having done 15 hours with That Other School, and told me he was ready for solo. He deposited $30,000 with us to cover ground school theory and the rest of his flying training. Looking good.
On the first flight, I saw that he could barely hover, so the "ready for solo" comment was a bit off the mark.
We got into his training, with 2 weeks intensive theory and preflight briefings, and then daily flights to consolidate that learning. After 2 weeks, I said to him that it was unlikely that he would pass the theory (his recall of the previous day's theory was atrocious) or be up to the standard for a commercial pilot. I suggested that he save his money, hire the chopper with pilot whenever he felt like flying, and stay in the money business (where he was making wads of cash.) I returned his unspent money, which hurt, as I could have just burned up the rest of it in training, but in all honesty I couldn't do that to him. He thanked me and left.
A month later he landed in our heliport in a B206 from That Other School, told me he got 86% in all his exams and finished his CPL and 206 endorsement. He loaded the machine with 4 big men, their golf clubs and overnight bags. I suggested that he was a little overweight, particularly as he was headed for a landing at 3000'amsl, but he told me that the W&B calculation was done by The Other School and they told him he was in limits. He started up, hovered in his usual up-to-**** manner, and used a lot of the airfield to get airborne. Dunno if he stayed in the industry or is still alive.
So, as suggested above, I scrubbed him, The Other School took his money, did his exams for him, and gave him a licence.