The Flight Ops Director of a major UK airline recently stated that they had made mistakes with respect to cadets in recent years and only appreciated this when they discovered that they really needed to teach them how to fly as well as training them how to land - this for both MPL and conventional students. The erosion of the basic flying syllabus in large training schools and the transplanting of all basic training overseas has exacerbated the problem. What does this say about our once proud flight training industry?
Would you be surprised to learn that students training for a JAA/EASA CPL in the US for example, had suffered landing incidents where the undercarriage was detached from the aircraft and whilst another student taxied into a windsock pole yet their training records made no mention of either of these, in large part because the training, although conforming to an approved JAA or EASA syllabus, was conducted outside of the jurisdiction of the authority and could be kept quiet to protect the interests of the students.
Simply "having a go" allowing trial & error to occur is unsatisfactory, and poor instructional technique. It can do more harm and good.
Which sadly is how many cadet's have 'learnt' during ab-initio training.
These were of course technical issues however similarities with respect to transparent record keeping in other areas are entirely possible.