Beware semantics, yes; … maturity, experience, mm ..., but how.
BW,
More training and flying might be just ‘more of the same’, so increasing the hours requirement guarantees neither maturity nor experience.
“Maturity a term used to indicate how a person responds to the circumstances or environment in an appropriate and adaptive manner. This response is generally learned rather than instinctive, and is not determined by one's age. Maturity also encompasses being aware of the correct time and place to behave and knowing when to act appropriately, according to the situation and the culture of the society one lives in”.
The definition is similar to experience which you allude to, but the difficulty is how to gain (learn) experience, awareness, judgement, particularly if the number of learning situations are decreasing (I assume that technical and operational safety have improved).
This still leaves situation awareness and culture. Awareness is linked with knowledge and knowhow (training issues), and cultural aspects involve behavioural change (CRM); initial training might even contribute inappropriate or missing CRM skills.
A cultural change may have removed the need for ‘memory’ and ‘rules of thumb’ – the age of Wiki-Google-geeks; thus there are knowledge shortfalls. People expect ‘instant gratification’ – instant answers (SOP culture), fly by the book.
Some of the new hire-pilots might find that interpersonal communication is easier in ‘text speak’, or via Facebook.
Cultural adaptation requires extensive training, which may be beyond the industry’s expectations of cost and time. A general assumption could be that modern aviation does not require as much knowledge, and until communication issues are proven to be a safety hazard they are only an in-house CRM problem.
If training is to be a solution then the content / format should be reviewed; not just more of it. In the meantime, the ‘older’ mature captains have to accommodate any crew deficiencies and act as mentors; these tasks add to current operational burden which could be approaching a limit.
The problem posed is that new crew ex-training appear to be short of certain skills. Training may only contribute a small improvement, but the sharp-end can take active leadership, with patience, example, and guidance.
Expecting someone else to do something might be an artefact of a different culture.