Blue Eagle – you said “An initial part of command assessment is establishing if the individual has the qualities you are looking for”
In KA’s case, PCE (pre command evaluation) and PCW (pre command workshop) has already taken care of assessing a candidates command ability prior to undertaking command training.
You also said “selected will achieve the required standard at the first or second 'hit'”
In KA, there is no second hit. A single bad day in the sim at the end of an expensive and time consuming command course will result in being sin binned for 12 months. No second chances.
Despite the fact that KA employs generally very experienced pilots they still have an appalling failure rate that should embarrass the checking and training staff no end. But they appear to view such a failure rate as a success – the more that fail the better the system is.