BEagle - thanks for the complement about our standards at Jerez. As you may know, we train pilots for a number of airlines (including BA) and the Jet sim course we do gets them up to speed on the faster aeroplane and jet handling - but it is quite a step up.
By the time BA cadet ahs done 44 hours (including the FHT) nearly all of which ahs been hand flown, he is up to speed on their SOP, procedural flying (good for situational awareness) and handling emergencies (engine failures at all phases of flight, fires, pressurisation failures, diversione etc.).
I am almost always astounded by the standard these chaps (and chapesses) achieve in such a short time -- if we had more groundschool time than the current week we could really do some good work.
BA reckon that the course we do saves them £1.5 million per year in reduced training at type conversion and line training level, and they reduced the B737 course from 64 to 48 hours sim time as a direct result of what we do.
I was not aware of how badly the standard had got at METS - but as always, tinkering with one budget at the expense of others does keep the bean counters happpy.
However, you are not alone, the awful influence of the bean counter is everywhere in commercial aviation and training - so we know how you feel.