I worked at the Wellington one for a stint a while ago when I was doing my CPL/MEIR. Me being employed then shows that you don't need a whole lot of experience/knowlege to do the job (I'm not saying I did it well). It was cool as I was doing my ATPL's at the time and things kinda made a wee bit more sense. It's like doing a trail flight in instructing. Make the customer think that they can do it all...
Regarding the guy from the WLG aeroclub with thousands of hours FE time, who talks about V-LOCK. He did end up going solo in a real plane during my time there... Though I hear he's got a kid now and had to get another job that pays better