Safetypee brings up the notion of management, and mentions it often. I agree; it is a vital integral component of the captain's role.
I brought up the question of low experience SFI's teaching the next generation of low hour cadets, and if this is a good method of building a solid foundation in aviation, not just one version of SOP's. (I have met low hour captains from this type of pilot farm who believed there was only one way to fly a procedure.)
Now what about the low hour captain and their expected handling capabilities? There seems to be some common idea that those are being eroded due to lack of experience first & practice second. So now what about management? How much of commands in rapidly expanding modern airlines pays attention to operations management? OK, they trot out the regular CRM stuff; they pump in a few slightly more than average QRH non-normals and see how the new ace handles the situation, according to the book. What about 'total operation management?' That means, ground ops, catering, flight planning, ATC, slot times + problems, passenger problems, baggage problems, en-route weather problems, diversion problems including managing the pax handling in a foreign country where you are not expected, technical diversion, pax problems on board = divert yes/no et.c etc. Now of these have a QRH, MEL or DDG. You have no coms back to base. You are at the front line and in charge. Do most 4 year experienced 28year olds have what is all necessary?
A discussion point.
I did some command training, in a foreign country from our own airline, while operating a charter contract for a local airline. It was fascinating. Over a week, everyday, something needed a captain's decision which was not in any manual. The answer was based on knowledge of the environment, common sense, multi-tasking and problem solving using all agencies and resources available while pleasing the customer. It was excellent and the candidate was good enough to make some himself and learn from suggestions & hints. He was a mature (age) pilot with 7 years as F/O including some long-haul and quite a few sub-charter ops. He'd seen quite a lot, but unfortunately had been lumbered with captains who did not teach and demonstrate ( e.g. what would you do?) but just gave orders with no explanation. He rose to the challenge. I wonder how much of today's rapid command process can really prepare the newbie for what they will will have to handle. Handling the a/c is one thing, managing the whole operation, out of sight, is another.
This is even more relevant with the 'management' of an intercontinental wide-body operation. No you can throw in the night-stop issue that will breed unforeseen problems. If the rapid command criteria were applied to those flights, and LOCo's branch into intercontinental ops, you could see quite young low houred captains. Would that be healthy or should there be higher thresholds?
A cross-channel ferry is one thing, a world cruise is another.