Copied from another Thread seeing as Crabette posted there too!
Look outside your box!
Crabette,
'take a paramedic off the street and ‘train’ up to be a winch man'....
Firstly: Paramedics are probably taken out of an ambulance or response car and therefore are quite probably on top of their 'medical' game and far more current / experienced than some Winchmen.
Secondly: in order for a Paramedic to be 'taken off the street' they would most likely not be willing to take a pay cut and therefore probably get paid more than most military winchmen!?!
Thirdly: It has already been done very sucessfully in the organisation you so covertly mention.
If the appropriate screening and testing techniques are applied to applicants from this background you get an extremely high standard of professional who then needs the appropriate training in aviation which can be easily carried out at an operational base over an appropriate period of time.
All this has been done, and I think you are being highly disengenuious to people you may have to work with in the very near future!! (Hopefully)
It is about time some of the 'light blue' began to open their minds to what may well be the way ahead!! You never know, you may even have to sit beside an aircraft commander who is civilian trained.........