Anyone can say that effort and study were not done to just get rid of the problem but that wasn't the problem, lack of care in management is where the problem is. Most people I know who are captains in the Majors said not having a partner is a set up to fail, why would they say make sure you have a partner for success. All instructors all said why don't you have a partner. If it wasn't important why would they even ask that question. They need to have a better plan earlier on about how to deal with this situation and make it known to the whole class as well and the manager to address this situation immediately. Working in any job is to be a team effort and not want to see anyone fail due to lack of effort on a manager that was notified many times and did nothing to help but take the easy way out.

People who had partners can easily say this but if it were to happen to them it might not have been a good outcome as well.

It is a proven statistic that working with a partner from the beginning will be more successful than not and everyone in this industry knows that, they just do not want to admit its true and they can't be wrong.