A Line Technician reported a concern of inexperienced Technicians working in areas where the lack of knowledge and training could affect aircraft safety.

Narrative

I have been a safety advocate for some time and feel the need to express my opinion regarding the overall safety conduct of our operation. I have been a technician at the terminal for over 25 years. In this time; i have seen the experience level deteriorate at a rapid rate. I feel the need to highlight this elevated risk to the company. In my opinion; the risk is so elevated; that its not about if someone gets hurt; its about when someone will get hurt. The experience level at the terminal is concerning. We have technicians whom have been hired directly off the street. They have recently acquired their airframe and powerplant certificates from a technical school. They have no aircraft experience. They are performing checks and maintenance on the line and at the terminal after some initial training. We are placing the inexperienced technicians in the most pressured environment with minimal supervision. I question them performing ETOP checks with so little experience. I thought they needed a certain number of years experience before they could perform these important checks. The lack of experience leads to poor judgement skills and depth of knowledge of the aircraft systems. Furthermore; the process of complying with the paperwork and the legalities of the maintenance issues (for example; MEL procedures) complicate the process which can confuse and overwhelm the technician. It often takes a more experienced technician to slow the task at hand down in order to comprehend the issue before it gets out of hand or becomes a safety hazard. To be clear; I'm not blaming the company at all. It is the system we have. In order for the company to achieve its goals; we need the manpower to do so. One has to assume that if one meets the basic requirements (airframe and powerplant); they can do these task competently. I believe it takes time to be proficient at these skills.My career path to the terminal was to work in c-check and gain some experience on the aircraft. I worked various systems in order to confidently troubleshoot the aircraft. I did this for a year. When I bid the line; I did not go directly to the terminal. I was placed in a maintenance check area. I performed 1 service and 2 service checks primarily. I gained experience in learning how to properly defer and release aircraft. When I gained experience in performing these tasks properly; I was allowed to transition to the terminal in a more challenging and stressful environment. These days; due to the lack of manpower; these new technicians are not afforded this opportunity. Obviously times have changed. However; maybe we could look at someways to change the present system to have more checks and balances. A proposal would be to increase inspection. Hire more inspectors to have a second set of eyes on critical systems. Give them more oversight! Currently; we have cut back on inspection. I believe we should have more inspectors! We should allocate more items for them to inspect maybe through the use of an inspection task and/or RII (Required Inspection Item) process.I believe we must start to view this from other angles. Inspection is key to our continued growth. Training is also a key! Maybe a buddy system with more senior technicians. We must look at different ideas before somebody gets hurt. I appreciate the Company's time in reading my report. I look forward hearing your comments.