I was an apprentice at Qantas in the 60s.Like many others I graduated from my apprenticeship as a B707 LAME.
Many years later I was involved in preparing a submission to the Productivity Commission enquiry on Airline Deregulation. One of the questions was what do airlines produce? At the time I was unpopular with the "powers" when our submission included tradesmen and LAMEs. My point being that once the airlines became deregulated, unless Government put in place alternative training methods, the deregulated airlines would cut cost including staff training.
Like many things mentioned at the time our submission was ignored and our forecast has come to pass.
Wunwing