Hey Doug,
We all must have made it!.
No exemplary(sp?) quals here, mate.
I'm a Station Officer in the local Fire Brigade and I have 2 apprenticeships under my belt, both of which I have learnt HEAPS from.
You just can't disparage good old Apprenticeship training, one thing I do know, is the fact that, you grow through your so many thousands of hours (and Night classes!) training on and off the job.
Collectively, I've done 22,000 hours of training to get to where I am now and I am darned proud of it, no middle or upper Management is going to take that away from me!. [Linked Image]