IMHO, the AFAP is virtually worthless...
Great in concept, but tainted by the fact that the battles they need to fight exceed the capabilities of those charged with fighting them! I've seen this on a few occasions now - and the predictability of an amatuer approach from AFAP is quite frustrating, both as a pilot and a pilot manager.
I do acknowledge the "can't change things from outside looking in" argument, but my primary focus is not to ever be driving AFAP - I'd rather pay fees to people who are interested in doing that well and in so doing, get out there and kick some goals for us.
Nevertheless, paying for ICUS is a crap scheme but unfortunately, it will never stop. I bet that many companies would love to buy a new photocopier, get the office staff to pay for a training course on it, and then have them pay again to use the copier in the service of said company!
I like the concept of "feeding" pilots from one company through another, though - at least that way each company has a known quantity, the pilots coming through a career path for a while and the stability that comes with being able to predict and plan (to an extent) pilot attrition. Ideally, a flying school to charter company to regional airline concept would be great.
To be honest I reckon it would develop a very competitive and professionally mature aviator in comparison with their QANTAS cadet / military counterparts - after all, there is no substitute for getting out there on the job and learning through experience, with the right balance of mentoring from those pilot managers at each level along the way.