The peroration below was written in answer to the first post by the OP!
You are not alone in having this stunt (perhaps "criminal fraud") pulled on you by Part 147-approved Maintenance Training Organisations (MTO)......at least one British College was doing the same up to last year to my knowledge, on its own courses and ones it facilitated in another College, and perhaps still is.
The position is that if the EASA Part 147-approved MTO provides a fully-approved B1.1 course (see below), you should receive an EASA Basic Training Certificate (assuming you pass all the exams and assessments). The work experience then needed before you can apply for a licence is 2 years (apart from exceptions such a ex-military). Your BTC and log-book are what's needed.
Otherwise it's 5 years work experience, plus passing all the Module exams without any Practical training or assessments, or OJT. Your Module Examination Pass Certificates and log-book are what's needed.
To be fully-approved, a B1.1 course MUST be 2,400 hours minimum instruction, including 1200 hours Module subject teaching and exams, 800 hours of Practical Skills training in an approved training workshop, and 400 hours On-the-Job Training. The OJT must be structured and supervised, and cover all areas of the aircraft. It must be done under the Part 147 school's general management and supervision, under a contract between it and the Part 145 MRO to facilitate the OJT.
The difference in work experience requirements is because the extra 3 years is in lieu of the Practical and OJT that the fully-approved course includes.
It appears that the course provided by AA was not fully approved, because it did not include the OJT, quite apart from any other failings that you hint at. If that is so, then to be able to apply for a licence you will now have to carry out 5 years work experience. And in that case, not only is doing any OJT pointless now, but so was the Practical you probably did. (Pointless only from the rule-book point of view; probably very useful to learn the skills!)
If AA sold you a fully-approved B1.1 course, you did not get what you paid for. You should demand recovery of all the fees paid, plus compensation for the waste of time and effort. Do not accept a reduction just for the OJT; the rest of your money was also wasted on a course that was useless to you, and you now have to do 5 years work experience. You could have passed the Module exams during the 5-years by home study and just sitting the exams.
AA is regulated by EASA, I believe, not by any NAA as it is outside Europe. You should write formally to them (There is a Director of Training, or some such, Marcel Kompare last time I was there), but don't expect any coherent or prompt reply. Your best friend is a good lawyer in Australia to recover your money and get compensation as well.
Good Luck.
PS Start logging your work NOW, get every entry signed off properly, and try and compile a log as far back as you can, if you can get it signed off by the right people. You are going to need this, whatever happens..
Last edited by Capot; 17th Dec 2011 at 18:08.