Trim Stab, your question abut experience is slightly limited. Remember that the Canberra was a significant force in the 50s and 60s. As a general split, the RAF was leaving the piston age and on its way to becoming an all-jet force with transport types being the exception (and of course RW).
The jet force was either fighter - Vampire, Meteor, Hunter, Javelin - or bomber - Canberra and V-Force. The Canberra was almost de rigueur the intro to the V-Force with copilots having one Canberra tour under their belts.
As the years wore on and the new aircraft matured so the criteria relaxed. With the introduction of the F4 and Buccaneer bombers in the late 60s and the Jaguar and Harrier bombers in the 70s they were clearly fast-jets compared with the Canberra. The other stream, in contrast, was multi-engine, Victor, AT, Shackleton etc. The Canberra was the odd one out but still tended to be an intro to fast-jet.
Many fast-jet crews were ab initio however other ab initio aircrew were sent to the Canberra, almost on a make or break basis, before moving to the modern FJ. With the reduction in the Canberra force to just the PR9 there as still a question of what to do with ab initio FJ aircrew that were not quite up to speed. The GR1 then became the make or break posting with the best crews going to Harrier, F3 and Jaguar.
A very broad brush and I shall probably be flamed but in defence I will say I was for a time on both FJ and ME Flying Trainng sub-committees.