737driver,
I fly for an airline (B-717 now with B-727 & DC-10s in the past) and I've flown as a P-3 NFO.
There is no way the average civilian pilot with 200 hours should be put in the right seat of a 737 with 100+ pax. There is also no way most civilian trained pilots with 500 hours should be put in the right seat of a regional jet. I won't let my 12 year old daughter fly in RJs for this very reason and you'll never see me flying as a pax in one either.
It was bad enough "flight instructing" 500-1000 hour civilian trained First Officers in the right seat of a Twin Otter when I was a Captain flying Grand Canyon tours. My friends that went on to regionals and are now Captains there tell me it's worst baby sitting them in RJ right seats. But you know, we had a few former military helo guys at Scenic with very little fixed wing time that all did great.
Many of the foreign airlines that do your type of program train their pilots in the U.S. because of the lower training cost here. I've seen the programs at Comair Academy (now has a new name), at Bakersfield, in the Phoenix area and in Florida. The training is no where close to what military pilots go through and there is no way a 200 hour civilian pilot has acquired the skills of a 200 hour military pilot. Further, to use your P-3 example, 90% of the time when it is anything other than a dedicated pilot training flight, there are at least 3 pilots on board with the other 2 having more experience. If the new guy can't handle it, there is a guy standing by to take the seat. Not so in the civilian world and I know many RJ Captains that say they are basically flying "single pilot".
I also disagree with your contention that flying a 737 is the same as flying a RJ. I know the 717 is a lot harder to fly than the 727 was and the DC-10 probably the easiest of the 3. If you try landing a 717 like a 727, you're going to damage the plane and probably crash.