Carlton - indeed it is their trainset, and of course they are allowed to stipulate any minimum experience requirements that they like as an extra filtration layer. I have no argument with that at all, but what bothers me here is someone is clearly making up their own rules.
A full type rating course by its very nature includes an IR validation element, so it's irrelevant whether it is valid or not when one starts the course, there's no extra sim sessions and therefore no extra cost.
Are there any TRI/TREs reading this who know the full story here.