I fly a lot with low-hour-cadets at our slightly orange tinted LCC, and I am surprised, how good they are. Most of these twentysomething-year-old guys are absolutely airline standard (and that is quite high, referring to the CAA...). They have good technical knowledge, good CRM, excellent hand-flying skills, just limited experience.
I find it quite intriguing that in the maritime industry there is absolutely no way a cadet graduating from a Maritime Training School would be immediately walk into a first mate (second in command position) job on a ship- whether a coastal or ocean going. He would need to have gained several years of sea-going experience before going back to school for more training before graduating with his First Mate ticket. Yet somone can be an airline pilot second in command of a bloody great jet transport within 15 months of first learning to fly.
if the sea can be terribly unforgiving of a mistake how much more for the skies and it's a long way to fall..