I left No2 Radio School at Yatesbury after the year long Fitters Course, as a J/T & after a few years was promoted to Cpl. I took the Cpl/Tech exam & was promoted to Cpl/Tech I then passed the Senior Tech exam, but had to wait for promotion.
Like ian16th I had my Cpl/Tech rank & Trade Pay taken away from me, so I protested loudly about the removal of the Trade Pay, which I had earned. An external Organisation took up my case & my Cpl/Tech Trade Pay was reinstated even though I was wearing Cpl chevrons !
The Technician training that we received was second to none, when my 9 year engagement was up, I was told that they would promote me to Sgt if I signed on, but IBM had already offered me a job as a Mainframe Computer Engineer. I worked for IBM for 23 happy years & took early retirement at the age of 50.