Scarlett
I will be the 1st to say there are plenty of good guys out there but I'm afraid that I speak from my point of view as the "customer"
I am certainly not one for bashing the branch just because that is the common rhetoric but I have been around since before the advent of the branch and just cannot see much difference from before. I'm afraid that too many people seem to take the easy option of saying "no you can't" rather than trying to resolve the true issue (though it's not the only branch guilty of this, but then I never said it was). It's just a real shame for the branch that the really good guys who are willing to go that extra mile are so few and far between.
I'm sure the people within the branch work hard (we all do, let's be frank) but I'm not sure that the branch itself really knows what it's for any more - maybe that's due to the lack of a credible branch sponsor and thus direction. I'd love to be able to extol the virtues of a branch introduced to make it easier to do my job and thus increase operational output - if only that's what it really did.
And I'm afraid that there will always be a response when people like isitme fan the flames of an ever-smouldering debate! Anyway, that'll be my last word on it...
... back to the thread though...
I do hope that as Phase 1 and 2 training is pared back, the ability to increase the bore of the pipeline is kept for the inevitable rise in recruiting that we'll see once the job market picks up again. Otherwise we'll be in oh such a pickle in 4 or 5 years once everyone sitting on their PVRs/reaching their options have gone. I have a feeling that unless we can react quickly when it happens, things could reach a critical state.
But I'm sure our Lords and Masters have thought of that.