Looking at the form, how realistic is ab-initio? You have to give details of hours to PPL , solo, number of attempts etc. Can't believe a budding pilot with no hours is going to stand up against someone with a PPL.
Might be the same in some jobs that those that have gone further than PPL may be "over-qulaified", ie, you didn't learn it our way, so its going to cost more to make you "forget" your current knowledge and adopt the company way.
Good luck to all you of you, it's nice to see a more affordable scheme going to get you guys in the driving seat.