Fight this tooth and nail Steve.
In the UK, before the introduction of the "A" license the industry was struggling to recruit licensed engineers. There was 2 ways to go:
1. Make the Licensed Engineer position more attractive to future generations by investing in the industry and paying a salary reflecting the responsibility that goes with signing off a multi million pound aircraft full of hundreds of people.
or
2. Bring in un-qualified sometimes un-traded workers to the industry pay them way less than licensed guys, give them a couple of years experience on the shop floor (usually stuck in holds or in the cabin) and then allow them to hold a company authorisation which gives them most of the stamping power that a full licensed engineer studied years for. They then have the carrot of a B license position hanging over them in a few years for a salary £20000GBP less than than a properly experienced and traded engineer.
Guess which option the CAA went with!!
Oh and if your British Airways strike a deal with the UK CAA that allow's that company authorisation to be converted to a full EASA Cat A license.
The result? Well in the UK far more A licensed guys than fully licensed engineers. Salaries stagnating or dropping by as much as 25% and morale at an all time low. And they wonder why they still can't recruit "good guys"