I have worked for 4 airlines and, without doubt, the weakest training I had was in Emirates. I'm sure the advocates for the training department are all very satisfied that, on paper, they are generating all the right paperwork, ticking the right boxes and allocating grades. The problem is that there is that the overall culture in the airline is not conducive to honestly and openly admitting to less than perfection. Therefore training events tend to be over-scripted performances during which the candidate is so wary of making a mistake there is very little capacity left to learn.
At the risk of appearing 'hysterical', allow me to provide an example of an Emirates event. I arrived at the sim centre to meet my co-candaidate in an agitated state. Apparently, our rostered instructor had been replaced by another individual who duly appeared. He was unkempt with his tie half done up and told us he was very tired as he had 'been banging a hooker all night and she wouldn't let him get any sleep'. He then spent the brief trying to belittle both of us and wasted 15 minutes looking up an obscure and ambiguous reference in a document to prove me wrong.
The sim detail continued in the same vein and was of no benefit to me. The 'instructor' told me I had probably failed that session but he would make up his mind the next day after the second detail. My co-candidate said not to worry and that he was always like that. The second session came and went in similar chaotic fashion and, lo and behold, I had passed (probably because he couldn't be bothered with the paperwork for a fail). The whole thing was a joke - I believe the instructor concerned is notorious but could not be removed from training due to his extensive wasta.
While I accept that few Emirates instructors are quite as bad as that, that was not the only instance of a completely unconstructive approach that I experienced. The best training I had was when the type rating was out-sourced to BA in London with BA instructors.
So big yourself and department up, pixy, and feel satisfied. I didn't make this story up and I hope it will always be the worst training event I ever experience.
While the fear culture and perception of checking before training persist, Emirates training, like the airline and the country, will continue to be a shiny shell covering a pile of sh1t.