Mil SAR flights always had a constant turnover, a significant portion of whom were SAR virgins. It has to be said though that some of those SAR virgins, front or rear, were highly experience airmen. On top of that, every pilot trained to captain. There are other differences in relation to CivSAR training objectives and career structure, and of course Fleet Air Arm and RAF had differences too.
Let's just be careful when comparing 1.6 apples with 4 oranges.