GBZ
I fully agree. For the reason you mention there are now very few of the lower CS grades I talk of, but there are many higher ones, getting paid twice as much – especially in DPA. Most have never served at the lower grades and therefore simply do not have, and are not required to attain, the basic competences we speak of. This strengthens the position of consultants. Also, there is an increasing number of IPTLs (and above) who have no idea whatsoever what a given CS grade should be capable of. Their default position is to employ consultants in blissful ignorance that often they already have staff who can do the job in their sleep. On one aircraft project, one of my minor tasks was Risk Manager. After 4 years, and successful flight trials, my boss (non-technical) employed a full-time consultant to re-write the risk register as he didn’t believe that I could possibly do it. (Despite, by definition, most of the risks having been fully mitigated). And note, the consultant was employed to re-write the register, not take the responsibility for managing mitigation. After a month faffing around, the consultant asked me if I could teach him how to prepare a risk register. My observation that his fee could have paid for additional features in the aircraft didn’t go down well. Oh, and I didn’t tell him a thing. As an interesting aside, boss must have told porkies to get the money to pay for the consultant because his “requirement” failed the first scrutiny question i.e. “Why is (he) needed?”