Aviation Survival Technician Case Study

The End of the Aviation Survival Technician? A recent trend has shown a steady decline in attendance at Aviation Survival Technician (AST) “A” School, resulting in several classes being cancelled due to no students; ultimately leaving the fleet short almost 40 AST3’s. The future of the AST rating is in jeopardy due to lack of qualified applicants. I believe this is a direct result of little advancement opportunity within the AST community, fear of failure amongst today's youth, and simply not enough available information on the AST rating to possible students. The AST rate is one of the smallest rates in the USCG. Having fewer than 300 AST’s fleetwide, advancements within the rate are extremely slow. In addition, the advancement process including the Servicewide exam is now more competitive than ever. This leads to many junior AST’s becoming discouraged and seeking other career paths. I believe this is a direct factor in whether or not a possible candidate chooses to go AST instead of another rating. An alarming reality is how an applicant could easily decide not to choose AST if they do not see a clear path towards advancement in their future.
Additionally, prospective students are intimidated and can be deterred when the odds of failure outweigh the odds of success. I find this especially more prevalent with today's youth, to include possible AST “A” School applicants. AST “A” School is an extremely difficult program and the attrition rate is approximately 60-75%. Today's hypersensitive society can unfairly label a student who fails out of AST “A” School as a failure. Fear of this, in turn, prevents them from ever even