Well we dont have this type of employment arrangement here, as companies do their own hiring and firing. I'm amazed at the despair some of you have in trying to find quality mechanics and the fact that the training may not be up to it. It was always like proffessional sport in that the senior guys took the youngins under their wing and over time there was a natural development of these guys up the chain. I know in my starting year (1990) we have developed from 6 apprentices to basically 5 very senior mechanics. It all comes down the will to learn i guess, but also about formal training. Here we are trained as electricians first(at trade school), then as lift mechanics secondly(at trade school also so a formal qual but that now has been dropped). Doing it this way, you really understand the electrics behind a lift. It also is about the company rotating juniors thru those mechanics that are pedantic about service who will put time and effort into actually making apprentices actually doing breakdowns as opposed to just watching and forgeting what they see. The only real downside to our training was we had fitters to do the mechanical stuff(major works) so we didnt get too invloved in this and that was to our detriment. Since, now working for a small company, doing all the work it provides a good balance of both.

It is also a function of new pc style elevators as it virtually tells you what is wrong. In the old days of relay logic you actually had to learn what each relay does. Essentially in australia the relay logic mechanic has started to become a dying breed, esspecially an otis selector expert even at otis.

We have a great trade that is slowly turning into a reset trade.

On the topic of TS's, mostly small companies are poaching these types on top dollar and will continue to in the future.