The traditional apprenticeship in GA has worked for Australia, Canada & USA because of supply and demand. In Europe, GA doesnt exist, it doesnt need to, so pilots traditionally have come from the military or intensive structured training programs. The MPL has come from Europe (specifically one well respected northern European Airline pushed for it) where there is a need to find people to fly multi crew aircraft because there isnt the experienced crews coming from the military or other sources, so there had to be another source. Questions should be asked, are the most suitable people being selected and trained for these positions, at the moment yes, but if the interest, terms and conditions continue to decline the best people for the job may not come forward, which would make things interesting.
As for experience, quality time making decisons as a commander is valuable but modern aircraft are more reliable than ever and in the current economic climate such 'hour' building in Europe isnt going to happen so the alternative is to put guys into the airline environment and let them gain thier expereince in a structured and managed environment.
The military have recruited and trained in this way for years, are people on this thread saying that young guys in their 20's shouldnt be flying multi engine or fast jets because they havent 'earnt' their wings flying around the mulga.
Not everyone who has 'done the hard yards' has the right to a job but if suitably able people with the right aptitude to be put through training and are managed then what is the problem.
The problem that so many airlines are having are that aircraft are very reliable and for pilots the simulator is the only place that you regularly get to deal with non normal situations. Are people saying that this 'experince' is not valid? Put it in another context, you can convert on a CCQ from the A320 to the A330 via the simulator only - a zero flight time course. Simulators allow time to train and give pilots valuable experience. Whilst a simulator cannot substitute for the real thing, I for one would rather train and have a SOP to deal with the real thing than muddle through. For those sitting on the GA side of the fence not haiving the benefit of being inside the Airline environment, the training is structured and audited by the airline and regulators, which I suggest is different to a GA environment.
Whilst Australians might not be able to get to grips with such a training program it is here to stay because economic circumstances dictate it, times are changing in Australia, not always for the better but this industry never stands still.