In my view, enthusiastic PPLs who have actually experienced the range of PPL type activities, such as going to fly-ins, ralllies, visiting new airfields, crossing the channel, flying different types of aeroplanes, going on holiday to fly in other countries, taking part in the Dawn to Dusk or Precision flying competitions, would make far more suitable PPL instructors than the youngsters who graduate from Integrated courses or focussed CPLs. The latter have never done any REAL flying, never been anywhere outside the narrow scope of their syllabus and do not know the joy of flying somewhere just for the sake of it on a sunny day to sit and drink coffee and watch the other types of aviation going on. Examples - flying to Headcorn and watching the Tiger Club go through their routines, the parachutes dropping and all the other colourful things going on; Wycombe Air Park when the gliders are busy alongside fixed wing and rotary all getting on well together.
The average 200 hour CPL does not seem to me to have the breadth and depth of experience I would like to see in the FI - I have trained over 140 instructors now and the ones with more hours in their log books and more decades since their birth are generally much more likely to be good and successful instructors. The youngsters who are only looking to get hours on the way to an airline and are more interested in looking trendy than learning are a waste of time.
So I welcome the return to PPLs being paid to instruct. I have trained a few PPL instructors already over the years and although their handling skills may not be as honed as those who have just passed a CPL Skill test, their life skills usually more than make up for it.