When I was hired at a regional in 2008, my class consisted of four UND graduates and two ERAU graduates. We all sailed through training without a hitch. Classes ahead and behind of my class were a mixed bag of part 61/91 guys. Some of those guys struggled; several had to be retrained, two busted the checkride, one quit after having training issues, and another was let go. One guy that came from part 61 training and flew part 91 cargo had difficulty drawing on CRM to coordinate what he needed in the flight deck.
My point is these types of things are all addressed in a THOROUGH formal education format. Sure you may encounter these things out on your own, but sometimes they warrant a discussion or you may not even recognize the significance of what it is you encountered.
When I flew as an FO at the regional level, I always looked out for when ever a guy told me he was a second-career captain. Guys that left their 10+ year office job to become a zero-to-hero airline pilot. Don't get me wrong, there were guys that came from these backgrounds that were absolutely awesome, but the majority seemed to have issues.
There is absolutely
no way you can substitute a four year aviation university education with a 90-day course certificate factory. When I did my CFI course during summer session, we were required to design our own lesson plans and aerodynamics outline - that in itself took three months to do!!
When I visited ATP's Fort Lauderdale location, I was shocked to hear their students talk about busted
CFI checkrides for not knowing basic elementary things. Things like identifying those VORs on charts to listen to FSS and transmit on a seperate freq. Another student's comment was "aw yeah, that's not really fair because when are you ever gonna have to do THAT?"
If I want to hire someone that comes from somewhere with proven results, I will throw in the extra incentive to do so. Plain and simple.