Guys,
Agree with the statements of Bunglerat,
and to further that guys, from the old Ansett cadet scheme in the 90's British Aerospace, Tamworth graduates were flying for kendell, flightwest, aeropelicans and skywest after about 200tt and some loft/crm training in a b737 generic sim, their where even some lucky ones going on to the A320, 146 and 737 at the time. Another case is BA, LH, easyjet........etc....... in europe with fresh 200tt cpls in the right hand seat of a 737/A320/767/757, I think QF is a bit different if you are a S/O because it is more of a learning viewing role with 4 monthly sims chucked in for proficiency.
In my opinion GA is a great grounding for building skills, BUT sometimes you can develop the wrong skills along the way for the airlines aswell, but with airline cadetships and fresh ab initio pilots off the street it is the best way to get into airline ops at the end of the day. that is why we have training captains in airlines to pick deficiencys and correct them for these low time pilots!!!!!!