airsupport, you don't think part of the problem might be with the apprenticeship in the first place and companies competing on costs, where just one apprentice can make a company non-competitive? I don't want to belittle apprenticeships, but they are a couple of centuries old and hark back to Dickens' England and the days of skills/knowledge transfer between a master and his apprentice, when the apprentice was expected to stay in the trade and indebted to the company for life and assume the role of master. Much more effective and economic ways of transferring knowledge these days, but the CASA hasn't done anything to the regs in 30 years, I doubt they'll change the apprenticeship process in the next 30.
I might be wrong, but in the airline's case, apprentices are relatively cheap employees when there is a LAME as supervisor and there are plenty of willing apprentices. A shortage of LAMEs changes the whole equation because now even the apprentices can't be employed.
It's not the CASA's problem. It's an industry problem for the industry to sort out. They can do this by any number of ways, including appealing to the CASA to change examination requirements, fees, etc., but obviously the industry doesn't think the need is that great just yet, or the attractiveness of the position would be much greater. Primarily it comes down to the fact that the job is not competitive with other jobs and despite throwing a little money around and making themselves feel charitable, CASA is just guilding the lilly. It's up to the market to make the job more attractive.
Last edited by Lodown; 11th Jul 2008 at 03:57.