I was a 250 hour Shed pilot many moons ago and I had no idea what was going on. Took me a few months of multi sector days and patient skippers till I got useful. When I joined Virgin I had 4000 hours of SH to fall back on. I feel for the cadets whomever they may be, they are going to have to be on the ball and then some. They will get help and support from some but most of the line skippers are unhappy because as they say, they are not trainers. I'm not sure that a year of line training, giving the cadets 1000 hours ish when they come online, is enough. However I may be proved wrong!
As for the current working life....I've been here 9 years and could count the number of 'holiday trips' on 1 finger. We are able to choose preferences for our roster and those of us on the bus with a Far East preference are about to see those options reduce to HKG only. That will affect our rosters, leading to more east coast night stops, which is much a much harder lifestyle.
I'm not sure that morale is all that high either. Better perhaps but the new leaders have yet to prove they are anything but spin. Putting all our eggs in the UK/US basket is risky as well. Once again I may be proved wrong! There is no doubt that the Delta tie up has given us a bit more job security, just not a particularly great job perhaps......
It's still better than SH though and if I was a young lo cost skipper I would give it up for this. There's more to life than money and how many of us get to retirement and think 'I wish I spent more time at work'.
Good luck.