Don't be too hard on the lad; he is to a large extent regurgitating what he's been told and can't leaven that with his own experience. It's just a shame that Oxford (or at least one or some of its staff) feel the need to try and convince their students that this kind of crap is true.
It may well be that in OAT's own culture, and in any agreement made with the airlines it deals with, failures at ground exams are not tolerated. Of course, you would expect in that case that anyone who fails an exam is not allowed to continue to waste their money on the flying phases of the course. Perhaps someone from Oxford would care to comment on that...? However, in the wider field of real-world employment, it is accepted that people fail exams and retake them. It would be a very hard-nosed employer indeed who took a dim view of this.
Take the article with a pinch of salt. Those of you not OAT trained who have been successfully employed may like to write to the magazine concerned and set the record straight?
Scroggs