A quart WILL fit into a pint pot

[propersplitbrainme]

OK training is expensive, we get that - but not quite as expensive as not training, or at least not training properly.

So the latest masterful (for masterful some might say clueless, but I'll leave that for you to decide dear reader) cunning plan from the powers that be to cut time from training courses is to........

Ta da da daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

Break the training day into 10 periods rather than 8, so an 8 period lesson will now finish at 3pm and not 5pm giving you time to start something new. Happy days. What genius. Better still, break the day up into 40 periods, that way we'll get 1 weeks worth of lessons into 1 day and we'll have the buggers in and out in less than a month!

And, apparently, the instructors won't have to work any harder because there will be bucket loads of spare time in between courses (they'll now be shorter of course), time which Business Development won't for one second think of filling by selling yet more courses to foreign powers. Ohhhh no, no no no no no no.

<Sigh>

Yeah OK some of the time during the day is going to be found by shortening breaks and lunchtimes - 1 1/2 hours for lunch is overly generous and I think most reasonable people know that. Nevertheless, you can only fit so much information into so many heads in a given period of time; that's why the lessons were designed the way they are, the number of periods is irrelevant you can call the day 10,000 periods if you like, lessons still take a given period of time to deliver. And as for practical, guess the lads will just have to spanner and operate those winches faster!

<Sheeeeeeshhhhhhh>

 

[vim_fuego]

OK training is expensive, we get that - but not quite as expensive as not training, or at least not training properly.

So the latest masterful (for masterful some might say clueless, but I'll leave that for you to decide dear reader) cunning plan from the powers that be to cut time from training courses is to........

Ta da da daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa View attachment 13366

Break the training day into 10 periods rather than 8, so an 8 period lesson will now finish at 3pm and not 5pm giving you time to start something new. Happy days. What genius. Better still, break the day up into 40 periods, that way we'll get 1 weeks worth of lessons into 1 day and we'll have the buggers in and out in less than a month!

And, apparently, the instructors won't have to work any harder because there will be bucket loads of spare time in between courses (they'll now be shorter of course), time which Business Development won't for one second think of filling by selling yet more courses to foreign powers. Ohhhh no, no no no no no no. View attachment 13367

<Sigh>

Yeah OK some of the time during the day is going to be found by shortening breaks and lunchtimes - 1 1/2 hours for lunch is overly generous and I think most reasonable people know that. Nevertheless, you can only fit so much information into so many heads in a given period of time; that's why the lessons were designed the way they are, the number of periods is irrelevant you can call the day 10,000 periods if you like, lessons still take a given period of time to deliver. And as for practical, guess the lads will just have to spanner and operate those winches faster!

<Sheeeeeeshhhhhhh> View attachment 13368

Have you by any chance had a change of leadership recently?

 

[propersplitbrainme]

Have you by any chance had a change of leadership recently?

Not that recently. This is part of a wider masterplan that's been brewing for some time now. One of the other parts of this plan is to ask the Subject Matter Experts to cut stuff out of their modules thereby saving time. This was to be done without conducting a full Training Needs Analysis (which is the only way of knowing exactly what needs to be in the courses) and without asking the course sponsor what depth he wanted the material taught to.

Go figure DT_Xtremez_35:

 

[Tin basher]

I echo PSBM's worries,
There seems to be a policy of shorter = better when in reality shorter = cheaper and shorter = less information transfer to students, ultimately shorter = less technically able people but happily for head in the sand short term management when their stint is up they can show clearly reduced budget costs. What could possibly go wrong. Some of our glorious leaders are holding meetings in the now endless search for the plot as they seem to have lost the copy they were once issued with. If things improve from where we are today it could upgrade from complete cluster all the way up to right shambles. The whole process is so very very disjointed and fragmented with a myriad of agencies having input but no one group having control of the situation. Long dark days beckon.

 

[Spearmint]

I'm assuming this is just the AMM Course or is it what they go through to wear the badge that looks like a Cat's ********?

Of course, the slack will be expected to be picked up by the receiving units once these individuals leave Cosford.......all whilst trying to achieve their existing Mission.

 

[propersplitbrainme]

I'm assuming this is just the AMM Course or is it what they go through to wear the badge that looks like a Cat's ********?

Of course, the slack will be expected to be picked up by the receiving units once these individuals leave Cosford.......all whilst trying to achieve their existing Mission.

Nope not AMM. It is, as you say, the course that gives them their ring of power.

 

[vim_fuego]

Nope not AMM. It is, as you say, the course that gives them their ring of power.

And from what I read on the forums they are in some cases getting picked up quickly due to retention issues?

 

[Rugby-Jock-Lad]

Unfortunatley training seems to be one of the parts of service ethos being hit hard financially by the sounds of it. The emphasis seems to be on ticking boxes as learners go through the training and not actually making sure they have learned. The introduction of learn quickly and move on was evident to me when I was at Leconfield where "all the learner tests were kept on file" after their tests. They were pretty much given the answers. Seems to me if any issues with young drivers killing others or killing themselves Leconfield would cover there backsides and show any investigative authorities the files to say they "had been trained".

With a greater emphasis on DLP I fear this is the way we are going to go. Learn and dump without consolidation of understanding and how those skills fit into a trade especially with reference to Health and Safety and Quality Assurance. Doing some teaching training myself in my own time I pretty much have come to the conclusion that the MOD now talks about "Duty of Care", "Quality of Training" etc and will tick the boxes but doesn't really practice it. And consolidation certainly isn't a concern.

 

[SORRY CJ]

.........wear the badge that looks like a Cat's ********?

Oi Oi Oi.....That's not a nice thing to say about a cat's ********.

Mr SCJ

 

[propersplitbrainme]

And from what I read on the forums they are in some cases getting picked up quickly due to retention issues?

Seems that way yes, and I'm sure that in each case its deserved on its own merit.

There seems to be a policy of shorter = better..........

Well I'd suggest that the policy is shorter = necessity TB. Overall I don't have a problem with making courses shorter; retaining trainees at training units longer than is necessary is wasteful in both monetary and manpower usage terms. But its the way its being done that makes me, or indeed anyone who understands the complexities and mechanisms of training, nervous and fearful for the future.
Taking pieces out of courses without making sure it all still joins up and is relevant is to play the highest stakes game of Jenga imaginable. Tinkering with the length of the daily training program could prove to be the introduction of a hammer to a finely tuned watch; wait and see what happens if the precious Pass on Time rates get affected!

If course compression is what is required then it has to be driven through the right processes starting with a TNA - what does the sponsor want teaching and to what depth?; the latter never gets resolved. And then put a small team of currently serving SNCOs together, personnel who not only know the job that the trainees will be doing but also understand training, writing ISpecs etc and get them to write the whole thing - the technical part at least - from start to finish. That is the only way you will get something new, something streamlined, something joined up, something that positively discards outdated technology, rather than a regurgitation of all the previous iterations of the course that results from running the same idea through the same heads over and over.

OK, I'll get off my soapbox now.

 

[Spearmint]

Oi Oi Oi.....That's not a nice thing to say about a cat's ********.

Mr SCJ

I'm a Legacy Leckie and allegedly all Leckies have a bias towards dogs...

So Cats can go and do one. DT_Xtremez_07:

 

[Kipper Fleet Bloke]

Whilst doing a Design Review for a Training System to be delivered to the RAF, it soon became clear that the majority of people MOD had sent (presumably from Abbey Wood) did not have a clue about Training and did not know the difference between Training Performance Standard (TPS) and Operational Performance Standard (OPS). They kept demanding that the trainees could go out and do an aircraft servicings within the prescribed time as soon as they started on the squadron the day after training and thought it a poor show that it wasn't going to happen. Luckily someone with some balls marked their cards for them. I can still remember the head in hand embarrasment of the token TDSU (or whatever it is called now) people there.

 

[SORRY CJ]

I'm a Legacy Leckie and allegedly all Leckies have a bias towards dogs...

So Cats can go and do one. DT_Xtremez_07:

Try telling that to Tara

Linky Thingy



Mr SCJ

 

[Late & Tired]

Oh dear, I see distance learning looming on the horizon...
Send the little cherub a CD with home study modules, to be learned in certain timescales, with tests at set stages. Come together for a week at Cosford part way through the course for crash study and consolidation.
Have a final exam at the end.
Works fine for the OU, and saves loads of time on instructors, assets, et al...

AND wake up...

 

[Barch]

Oh dear, I see distance learning looming on the horizon...
Send the little cherub a CD with home study modules, to be learned in certain timescales, with tests at set stages. Come together for a week at Cosford part way through the course for crash study and consolidation.
Have a final exam at the end.
Works fine for the OU, and saves loads of time on instructors, assets, et al...

AND wake up...

I worked with the Republic of Singapore Air Force on some CBT / CAI design several years ago. Their intent was to use distance learning for Phase 2 & 3 Training and Q - Training. It didn't work for the more complicated things but was OK for simple stuff such as Fuel Markings and Pipe Idents.

'Blended Learning' is the way forward, use the tools and instructors that are best suited for the learning task required whether that be 'talk & chalk' CAI, CBT, simulation or practical.

 

[fat lazy techie]

Send the little cherub a CD with home study modules, to be learned in certain timescales, with tests at set stages.

How about the little darlings get iPads, Android Tabs or perhaps Windows Tabs. Surely that's not ging to happen, oh hang on I think LTF and HTF are giving it a go after the brains behind PSBM concerns went out and spunked a whole wad of cash on some of the aforementioned items.

 

[Barch]

How about the little darlings get iPads, Android Tabs or perhaps Windows Tabs. Surely that's not ging to happen, oh hang on I think LTF and HTF are giving it a go after the brains behind PSBM concerns went out and spunked a whole wad of cash on some of the aforementioned items.

I once saw a customer whinge and whine about his bespoke interactive CAI not working on his iPads. Contract said it would be delivered in Flash, there was no mention of the platform it was to be displayed on.

Interactive flash does not work on iPads but fashion dictated that iPads were the way forward.

 

[Rigga]

Well, they've hit manpower and catering, and training is now under more pressure - there isn't much else a flying operator can cut except pilots, fuel and flying.

Welcome to late 90's Cold-War Soviet budgets!

 

[propersplitbrainme]

I once saw a customer whinge and whine about his bespoke interactive CAI not working on his iPads. Contract said it would be delivered in Flash, there was no mention of the platform it was to be displayed on.

Interactive flash does not work on iPads but fashion dictated that iPads were the way forward.

And that's exactly the problem we have. Flash is still widely used and our VLE will have a fair amount of Flash content that cannot be run on the wretched IPads that 'someone' insisted were purchased

 

[Barch]

And that's exactly the problem we have. Flash is still widely used and our VLE will have a fair amount of Flash content that cannot be run on the wretched IPads that 'someone' insisted were purchased View attachment 13376

Send them a quote for converting it to HTML 5.