There is an almost identical thread running in Wannabes. I've posted there on this question.
My personal view is that we should be running a 1/3 newbie background irrelevant, 1/3 experienced non TR and 1/3 experienced with TR profile. That way we get a good spread and access to the best. That remains the broad CC aim for me and my colleagues. To be fair, the company are slowly warming to the idea and the FOMP agreement alluded to earlier is specifically designed in this area to break the stranglehold of training providers and give control of cadets and the money to the company whilst binning the ludicrous and frankly usurious training and consultancy fees and diverting some of that cash to the cadets.
The fact remains that this is a business and the business case for taking TR guys is unarguably strong. We are fighting the battle on the basis that cash isn't everything, spending more but getting better value is often better. The fact also remains that this is not strictly an Industrial Relations exercise. In TOM BALPA has collective bargaining that covers those ALREADY EMPLOYED, to a large extent trying to influence WHO and HOW the company selects for FUTURE employment is strictly something we have no remit for and for that reason we have to gently make the argument because aggressively making the demand a) generally gets an equally aggressive rebuttal and b) is outside our remit.
That discussion is far from over and to be fair to the company, they see the merit but ultimately have to justify their costs to others who bluntly couldn't and don't know the nuances of it all and probably don't care either.
They're called shareholders.