HeliEng
Engineering in the UK, whatever the discipline has always been seen as "Lots of work, little reward".. I agree with your sentiments, albeit, speaking as someone who left Helicopter Engineering to pursue a more financially rewarding career. The military "Class" system can still be found in certain feckwits around the bazaars, but thankfully, most pilots are fairly decent blokes.. the same can be said of engineers.. for every pilot who is up his own arse, there is an engineer with a chip on his shoulder.
I think Engineers are very undervalued in the UK, and as long as this shortfall remains, then the recruitment problem can only get worse. It must be nice to do a job you love, purely for that reason, however I guess the young guys now, all look at the housing market, cost of living etc and rightly decide that aircraft engineering isn't going to pay the bills anymore.
I think its up to the companies to stop taking these guys and their skills for granted, paying them what they are worth, and recognising the effort and hassle these guys take on, for a few hours extra work here and there to keep the ships in the air.. Its not just about a few hours extra in work, its less time with the kids, the wife.. whatever.. I know a lot of guys who are very disillusioned with the business, and I don't blame them either.
GW