Airship Assistant

Airship Assistant is a highly sought-after profession in the Teardrop Sea Islands, but the opportunities are very rare and only the best of the best make it.   Because of the title, many misunderstand the role as merely assisting the Airship Captain, or being a sort of apprentice. However the Assistant is not a dogsbody for the captain, nor is it an apprenticeship. The Assistant has to be qualified to fly the airship alone before even stepping foot on one, as part of the role is stepping in if the Captain needs to step away from the wheel. The Assistant is usually charged with navigation, so they need to be constantly aware of the air currents and skilled with maps and navigational tools. Sometimes the Assistant will also relay the Captain's orders to passengers or carry out tasks to ensure their safety if a crisis arises. The responsibilities of Airship Assistant are of equal importance as those of Captain.   Airship Assistants must work in the role for twenty years before they are allowed to be promoted to Captain, but in practise this usually doesn't happen until their Captain retires. While they don't share the same privileges that the title of Airship Captain grants, they are respected in their communities, though their role can sometimes be overlooked or belittled by employers.   There is only one university in the Teardrop Sea Islands education system which trains future Airship Assistants, and that is Allkingdom University. Anybody aspiring for such a career has to enroll there to qualify. It is an extra-credit qualification, meaning the course which covers all skills required for the profession is added onto an already-existing course, which is airship engineering. This means not only that all Airship Assistants--and by extension, Airship Captains--understand the engineering of the vessel, but that those who qualify but cannot get work in the role, can use their engineering skills instead. Airship engineering is still an industry which doesn't hold many job opportunities, but the qualification is valued in many other professions due to its transferable skills and notoriously high bar for passing grades.