Yep, he is a mainline pilot and was talking about mainline entry.
We can thank
VB for introducing that to Oz, unfortunately, or was it the personal deodorant company, Impulse? (Isn't that the last name you'd call an airline?? Not for the deodorant connotation, but the association between doing something on impulse and an airline operation)
Incidentally, pilots have been one of the few occupations where the employer pays for training if the applicant is not qualified.
If a law firm seeks a solicitor, or an engineering firm seeks an engineer, etc., with specific qualifications, that's what they want, not somebody who doesn't meet their requiremetns who they must upgrade at their expense.
I do know of cases where an applicant with less than desirable qualifications has been taken on but at a much reduced rate until he gets up to speed with the requirements.
I know it's a tradition that pilots join an airline and the airline pays for their training, and I don't disagree with that, but the times they are a changin'. We dont have to like it, but we are going to see more of it.
Even if QF had as its conditions a pilot must pay for his initial training and then work for nix for a year, they wouldn't run short of applicants.