Emirates is a state-owned airline, so they don't have shareholders to report to. Western shareholder capitalism is often fairly short-sighted, with perhaps Germany, Austria and Switzerland being the exception.
When BOAC/BEA and later BA was state-owned, they used to have their set-up at Hamble, near Southampton. There is an excellent video of the training at Hamble on YouTube and the cadets there used to go through a training programme which wouldn't appear hugely different to what Emirates are offering their own folk.
These days, the British airlines effectively outsource pilot training to the "Big Three" whilst outsourcing the costs to the candidates (with one or two exceptions).