no sponsor - not sure about your CX comment.
They are only looking for Cadets - a poorly thought out plan to reduce wage costs (read no housing allowance in one of the most expensive cities in the world).
In fact they are happy quite with experienced pilots, just want to call them Cadets, hence their 3 tiered labeling....
Cathay Pacific - Careers : Careers Home
It does appear that they haven't reached their targets of more experienced pilots, which would allow for less training costs and shorter time to being on the line as rumour has it planned upgrades this year are already being revised downwards.
That said, hopefully sanity will return, or at least the market will force a rethink of the downward trend in packages and experienced pilots will once again be seen as valued employees.