Despite all the modern apprentiships, NVQ and IIP hoops that are foisted on us, IMHO, we are better at training our people (and always have been) than most equivalent civilian organisations.
I understand that civilian certification can be expensive, especially when there is a lot of effort required to prove that a Service course meets all the same requirements as the civilian equivalent, but when mil and civ personnel do the SAME course, surely there can be no reasonable explanation for the mil guys not getting the civ quals (though there may be something in r supwoods' comments!).
The military ATCOs at ScATCC are now controlling all of the medium level civilian transits on the Aberdeen-Newcastle link route, because the civvies have refused to provide RAS in Class G airspace, yet if the mil guys apply to ATC for jobs (in the same ops room?), previous experience counts for nothing.
Sorry, as usual I got carried away there. Back to the thread. I think the plan to share mil assets with the civvies is barking. I am not convinced it will be cheaper either.
STH