There is no reward structure whatsoever in any airline I am aware of for being excellent.
There are only punishments for not being adequate, with adequate being a remarkably low bar.
Indeed Tourist: IMHO I've seen mediocre from my day become the adequate today. Very sad.
In the 80's, in one of my airlines, the command pass rate was apalling low, until it was eventually realised that too many of the training dept. were trappers & not guiders/encouragers/developers. Once the selection process was improved and the up-grading restructured made more realistic the pass rate rose to where it would be expected to be. That was in the days when 7years/5000hrs was the threshold. I wonder how it's is working today with 4years/3000hrs quite common?
One other factor I have noticed is SFI's being 2 year experienced F/O's rather than more seasoned pilots, even captains, as in the older days. IMHO a 2 year ex-cadet SFI might be nothing more than an SOP lecturer and supervisor. I wonder if students, with real problems of a wide spectrum, handling, understanding of MCC/jets/automatics etc. can be provided with quick effective guidance.
If training needs to go back to basics, and then include more understanding of automatics, can this be achieved with low experience SFI's? There are, indeed, good teachers in their ranks, but the knowledge data base can only be a little more than what was gained in their own TR course a couple of years previous.
What are the opinions in different airlines and countries about the average experience of SFI's?