Nut loose,
The 5 month 'specialist' course referred to on the RAF website is the AMM course, which gives the students a very basic glossing over of all of the trades, but not to any great depth, concentrating mainly on aircraft operation and line tasks. This does not really compare with the single trade Mech course that you or I would have completed, as it designed to get the AMM's up to a good enough standard to mainly carry out line tasks, and give basic trade assistance across all trades. At this point it does not go into depth in either the Mech or Avionics specialisations.
After around 18 months to 2 years, the AMM's return to Cosford for Further Training, much in the same manner as the Mech Tech stream did, with the difference that they are now posted from their previous unit and are on Cosford's strength. The Mech 1235 course is then an amalgamated Airframe/Propulsion course that while not as in depth as the old school 'Fitters Course' - remains a little more in depth than the old 'Mech's Course'. This course currently comprises 13 months at Cosford including the Engineering Science and Academic Principles phase. Contrary to what appears to be popular belief, the course still requires the students to carry out fault finding tasks and exercises throughout the different phases, culminating in an assessed 'Consolidation Exercise' in the final week of the course which is designed to consolidate the student's ability to fault find, raise and complete paperwork, and carry out corrective maintenance in a safe and satisfactory manner and hopefully put together everything they have learned over the previous 13 months!
Completion of their NVQ then leads to the completion of a Modern Apprenticeship.