Becoming a Search Technician is also an alternative outlet for outdoor skills, with many callouts involving advanced navigation, tracking and bike skills. As part of the probationary membership process, you will receive training in navigation, first aid and water safety. Following qualification as a search technician there are then further opportunities to progress within the team; we have a water rescue team and a bike team as well as more advanced roles in team leading, search managing and search planning.
There is no glamour in any form of search & rescue, and we would not wish to recruit anyone who wanted to join with this as their aim. The work is always sensitive and can also be traumatic on occasions.
You need to be a genuine team player with a good sense of collective responsibility, e.g. appreciating that as a unit member your personal behaviour outside of the team (e.g. on the hill etc.) can reflect back on the whole of the unit. When operational we work in the strictest confidence and with the greatest integrity. Frequently we will come under public scrutiny via the media.