Are the majority of Auxiliaries being properly prepared for Halton?

[Stevienics]

Up until SDSR I would have agreed with you but the RAuxAF is now trying to double in size at the same time as we are reducing numbers so Reserves policy is very high profile at the moment even to the point it is virtually the only area of recruiting with a budget this year. With no significant change to our commitments overseas we no longer have the capacity to absorb "hobbyists" in the Reserve Forces, therefore the means by which they are recruited, trained and retained has to be put on a more professional and standardised footing. How do we achieve that? Answers on a postcard please!

Possibly across all three services they are looking to increase the numbers of reservists. The TA is looking for something like 30,000 established, but the RAF is reducing from 2100 to 1800 established. This is moot anyway as actual numbers at at around the 1100 mark at present and trying desperately to increase.

It is supposed to be a little more strategically integrated and fully so by 2020; it ain't going to happen this year though. Here is the thing though - there appears to be a little void forming betwen the aspirational and the feasible - even in the best case scenario where the numbers were there and the quality assured, what would you do as an employer if the MoD marched up and told you they want your fully trained man for 6 months service (not even National Emergency), simply to replace a regular serviceman that the MoD could not? What's your incentive?

 

[Tango_Lima]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pgV6VUinDEA

I'm all for copying this personally.

It says: we're relevant, but also proud of our history and it makes the National Guard look like the place to be.

 

[Tin basher]

The yanks do a decent rock song with good video footage and we do some grunts on a rainy hill at night with a big self assembly sign.

 

[beowulf]

The yanks do a decent rock song with good video footage and we do some grunts on a rainy hill at night with a big self assembly sign.

Which sums up the chaos that is the TA. To better inform the public whom we think have never heard of us we will monster up this hill and erect a sign no one will ever see in order to highlight how important we are at a time of war.

Although you could also argue that our tacked on "also be part of the story as a reservist" part two to regular RAF recruitment is just as ineffective.

Anyone seen that RMR advert where the boy packs up his desk on a Friday as the sounds of war ring in his ears? That is a good advert and is quite clever in what it's message is.

If I was making an advert (just off the top of my head) they would be a series, a mover, a nurse, a gunner. Each one shows them on ops being indistinguishable from those around and doing the exact same job. They come home and go back to work in their office/civvy hospital as the surprise reveal, maybe via public transport with those on the bus/train unaware of the superman they are sitting beside. DT_Xtremez_14:

 

[FOMz]

These always struck a chord..



and



There was one I remember from the 80's that was also good that did much the same as the Beowulf talks about.

 

[he_who_dares_rodney]

At that time they did weekends (every weekend) and drill nights until a space on a two-week BTC came up, which was "in house" within the RA TA but hosted by each regiment on rotation. The recruits we binned were of a lower standard than the ones trained within our own regiment.

Now, the weekends and residential training (now called CMSR) are run by Regional Training Centres (RTC) - so none of it is in house. This should mean all recruits are up to infantry standard, but I don't know how it works in practice.

When they go to CMSR the MT / Instructors who take them down stay until after lunch.
On my course we did the run press ups and sit ups.
Anyone who failed was RTU'd with the MT/ Instructor.

Plan was you did 6 weekends prior to CMSR with your Sqn / Regt
You got to Grantham (in my case) and you polished those skills.
The last person to be binned of my course went two days before pass out.

You returned to your unit for trade training etc

On Call up you did the same at Chillwell
People were binned for various reasons.
Once you got to your unit you did the same as the Regs 8 mile CFT etc.

 

[Gord]

Are reservists taught how to service and repair damage to aircraft or are they simply taught how to dress, march and possibly fire a rifle? If they are not doing the former and simply being trained in the latter then surely they would be better positioned at the end of training to become Army reservists rather than RAF, unless it was RAF Regiment reserves.

 

[Stevienics]

There are no Auggies in the TG1 capacity, excepting those sponsored ones who are mobilised by dint of their piece of machinery being required in theatre (Voyager, principally).

The other Auggie PTRS trades all receive phase 2 and 3 training (general and specialist trade training) before they are liable to be mobilised. These are Ops Asst, Photo int. Int, drivers, suppliers, movers, caterers, Regt (who must also do phase 2 training), and probably a couple I have missed.

 

[imperial96]

When I went in August a lot of people seemed a bit overwhelmed with the weapons training, apparently we should have had a basic introduction to the weapons system and 1 bloke out of 32 had gotten it, it would've helped to have had the lesson but there seems to be not a lot of communication between Halton and the SQN.

 

[Stevienics]

When I went in August a lot of people seemed a bit overwhelmed with the weapons training, apparently we should have had a basic introduction to the weapons system and 1 bloke out of 32 had gotten it, it would've helped to have had the lesson but there seems to be not a lot of communication between Halton and the SQN.

No, they shouldn't. People don't even get shown a rifle in GSK1, because it is decreed that all this familiarisation should be in the 2 weeks of FP we do at Halton - and there can be no argument about this. The older recruit (and those who still cling to the SLR), do struggle, but id there is a vacuum of competency to be filled, it is probably best addressed in Halton, with a more creative use of front to back exposure to weapons handling.

 

[UlsterExile]

There has been a recent conference on training within the Auggies. It was highlighted that the training is not really fit for purpose. Some of the stuff that is taught on the three weekends is absoloute sh*te and it will make no difference to them if they know it or not. However the powers to be are not in a receiving mode and have not quite dismissd it but delayed doing something about it. And it doesn't help that you have a regular FS at Halton looking after the course who knows nothing about Auggies/Reservists. I say that as I have met the pr*ck and he's not interested.

 

[Barch]

There has been a recent conference on training within the Auggies. It was highlighted that the training is not really fit for purpose. Some of the stuff that is taught on the three weekends is absoloute sh*te and it will make no difference to them if they know it or not. However the powers to be are not in a receiving mode and have not quite dismissd it but delayed doing something about it. And it doesn't help that you have a regular FS at Halton looking after the course who knows nothing about Auggies/Reservists. I say that as I have met the pr*ck and he's not interested.

Is it all about abilities or quotas?

All the politicians want to do is prove that their long term target of xK reservists has been acheived and that is the fact that the media will report; not that 50% of reservists can't hit a cow's arse with a banjo.

 

[UlsterExile]

Barch,

I concurr with with your comments, and I see the policy coming down every day asking for bums on seats i.e people being attested without having done Fit test or Medical. Talk about a training risk or what.

 

[Entropy]

What also needs to be taken into account is the actual amount of time allocated. The regulars have a month of IFPT where us Auggies complete the same lessons in 2 weeks. It doesn't take a genius to work out that to fit it all in you cannot afford to spend as much time familiarising peole with the weapon system, first aid or CBRN.

 

[Stevienics]

What also needs to be taken into account is the actual amount of time allocated. The regulars have a month of IFPT where us Auggies complete the same lessons in 2 weeks. It doesn't take a genius to work out that to fit it all in you cannot afford to spend as much time familiarising peole with the weapon system, first aid or CBRN.

It's the weapon that's the problem. We cannot teach people the weapon beforehand because that is wrong and short cuts the training system; However if we have people fail on the weapons we take one from the Armoury on their return, and they carry it everywhere during the day at weekends, NSP's are pretty much automatic after that and it's as familiar as it is to a regular.

You get old, things are harder to learn from a cold start; that's just a fact of life.

 

[imperial96]

Barch,

I concurr with with your comments, and I see the policy coming down every day asking for bums on seats i.e people being attested without having done Fit test or Medical. Talk about a training risk or what.

That is massively retarded. Who even made the decision to do that? Attestation before Fitness test and Medical is just asking for trouble, raising people's hopes and wasting time.

 

[busby1971]

That is massively retarded. Who even made the decision to do that? Attestation before Fitness test and Medical is just asking for trouble, raising people's hopes and wasting time.

Yes, but more importantly, hitting those targets.