Getting pilots for this contract won't be the problem, nor will getting the aircraft. The biggest problem is where the suitably qualified winch operators and winchmen will come from!
There are few in the civilian world who are not already employed in SAR or other crewmen duties. I suspect that those in the military who would like to go for the job would not be released quickly enough to fill the posts.
Does this then mean that whoever wins the contract must train their own guys from scratch? What company has a training machine in place to do that? I suspect not even Bristow who operate four SAR units, let alone Scotia who employ few crewmen anyway.
The RAF operates a SAR Training Unit at Valley and have had contracts to train civilians in the past, so perhaps that is the way to go. However, even that will take time. There will have to be a long lead-in time built in to whoever wins this contract to ensure that the training can be done (plus the medical training that will be required as the contract also requires a paramedic - which can be done by suitably qualified rearcrew)
As an aside to the comment about "crab" pilots and night hovering, this person obviously has not seen an RAF rescue Sea King which has the same if not better auto-hover capability (depending whether it be a Mk 3 or a Mk 3A) than the Navy aircraft. They are as good as their Nay counterparts! At least the "crabs" have a professional SAR school unlike the "wafu's" who have none and have even cut back their SAR commitments!