They're keen right now on getting 12 people selected for the February/March starts which means 6 people need to be chosen by xmas, to allow time for visas, class 1, financing, packing your bags etc. With four stage 2 events this month we can deduce that 70-ish people were called in so far, and they said they were first calling in people who gave early start dates... at least that was the plan. No clues as to how many applied, but they did allude to having lots of applicants that they intend to call in later, so if you haven't been rejected yet then I guess you just have to wait your turn!
As for flying experience, yeah that was maybe also a factor used in selecting the best-bets first, but plenty people just had a few gliding hours or a few ATC hours. Maybe once they're further down the line they'll call in people who've never actually tried flying yet, though I can't imagine many serious wannabes won't have at least taken a couple of trial lessons!
Just remembered... there will be a stage 5 which is an interview with the airline... the first batch of cadets will all be sponsored by EasyJet or JMC/Thomas Cook and they will want to meet their new potential recruits before investing so much money.