Originally Posted by
ericferret
It is very difficult to get a decent apprenticeship (or any apprenticeship for that matter) in civvy street.
The armed forces provide decent training.
They are a stepping stone for those who are looking for a career in aircraft maintenance.
You have to start somewhere.
If you take the long view and not that long, after serving your time and putting in the effort to get through the licence exams you are employable.
Having retired a couple of years ago I am surprised by how fast wages have accelerated.
Companies apart from annual pay rises also have time served increments.
A shift supervisor with full increments is on about £90k where I used to work.
Surely that is not too shabby and not a bad end result after a short career in the military.
If I was faced with the recruitIng problem I would be selling the future, this is where you start but this is where you can end up.
The military appears to think it exists in a bubble, embracing a whole career view to retirement would encourage more people to enlist.
A proper partnership with civil aviation would benefit both parties.
Alas the training is not as strong as it was even 20 years ago. Skill set has been dummed down with the removal of 2nd and 3rd line to Industry. But the reduction of time limits to gain a licence is still there. Alas, the CAA was incompetent to tie military training and experience into credits against modules for A and B tickets. I had to do the lot (17 exams) for the basic licence and I had to do the complete first Type OJT syllabus for my first type rating. Most British companies were not set up for that. I did slog it out to do the exams (not one minute in a lecture to pass them) and had them under my belt as I left. There is the differences between the structure that we all know of course. That will never change and does not in the case of Voyager and Shadow. However in the past. Companies also had no incentive to train people when they advertised across the channel.Cannot do that anymore. BA are recruiting from the military now trying to fast track LAEs.