I will be the first to admit that the US Regionals pilots they hired 3-5 years ago are a problem. We all know they could not get hired at the majors in the US and had to settle for Emirates just to get off that 50 seat job stealing airplane.
However if they can not get through the upgrade process or pass their PPCs it is also a reflection on the training department.
Having said all that the DECs program is still a mistake. We will get LCC domestic narrowbody captains and hardly any International Widebody captains that we might or might not need. The DECs might provide some relief on both the 330 and 777 but very unneeded and undesired.