IMHO it is not a training problem, but a culture problem. The TQ & base training should create a solid foundation for GH skills. The culture of the airline then encourages, or not, the development and maintenance of those skills. Before EFIS my airline actively encouraged manual flying. The autopilot was so basic that it was easier to do so. The F/O had only CWS and no A/T anyway. Manual visual circuits was the norm so skills were high.
I then flew B757/767 with other airlines and manual flight, visual approaches into small quiet airfields was the norm.
Later airlines with the new wizz-bang computer a/c said, very quietly, that manual flight was allowed, but then actively discouraged it. All through the winter fully automated procedures had been used. In the first week of CAVOK summer there were too many Go-rounds from screwed up manual visuals, and that meant lost money & time, so very restrictive procedures were put in place that effectively shut that door. Use of automatics and LNAV/VNAV etc. meant that the very basic skills which had not been taught that well were now in the land of Dodo.
You can increase the legal training all you like; you can increase the minimum base training circuits all you like, but if the company doesn't like its pilots to use those techniques it ain't going to happen.
As an aside, here's a discussion topic.
The modern B737NG & A320 family can be flown on the automatics like a play station. Rotate, 400' and engage George all the way to 400' in front of the runway at the other end. Trained monkey stuff. Write an extensive set of SOP's and train & check them with a vengeance. You can now expand your airline anywhere and as fast as you like. Every pilot goes through the same sausage machine process and there are base captains and local trainers to enforce the SOP's. Head office can have confidence that even cadets can twiddle the correct knobs and buttons at the correct time with any captain they meet; the captain will be doing the same and it works for any airfield. 20-30 new a/c per year spread over many countries flown by pilots from multifarious backgrounds. You have a central control with local oversight. The a/c can be flown this way, and all airfields are also to a standard. An approach plate is an approach plate, and ILS's & radar are in abundance, in Europe.
Could the same rapid massive safe expansion have been possible in the 70's & 80's when the basic a/c were B732, B727 & DC-9's? Many airfields were non radar and NPA's. No way would you take cadets into that environment; they needed an airmanship grounding first. captains had >5000hrs and should be able to watch over the neewbies, who might be ex-QFI's, military, turbo-prop, airtaxi etc. They knew about manual flying and were comfortable in the air. It was not a play-station. The a/c had to be understood and they had to be flown. The charter guys flew to some very basic places, in all seasons and all weathers. SOP's were based on FCTM and the company culture, which was more pilot orientated than accountant, as today.
IMHO the massive safe expansion of LoCO's we've seen over the past 10 years could not have happened with the equipment of the 70's & 80's. However, and here is my curiosity, SWA DID expand rapidly and used B732 and basic B733 with a down-graded instrument display. It seemed successful. Perhaps those on the inside could enlighten us. But, does anyone believe RYR could have expanded from 25 - 300 a/c over 45 bases in 12 years if they still used B732's?