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SMTW draw down?

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stacker4ever

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What with all the talk of the SDR and rumours flying everywhere about recruitment etc does anyone think the extra staff that were posted to the school may be posted out? Havent heard any rumours and not trying to start one.

It would be good to hear from anyone at the school and hear thier thoughts. Are there too many staff there now or is it just right?
 
Well since this is a stacker forum i would of thought that would be kind of obvious i was referring to the stacker school or wing or whatever you want to call it.
 
Sorry I read it on the akrotiri forum where it was deleted from.
 
Not the quantity of staff at SMTW, but the quality is the issue.

IMHO the instructors have been devalued (not their fault) at the school.

They teach from a lesson plan, designed by someone else & click a mouse. No need for individual experience anymore.

The old BIT course used to be double hard to get on & indeed pass. You had to get past a Station board before even being considered for instructional duties.

When this was no longer required it led to people being posted there against their will & desires. Leading to NFI instructors reading PowerPoint slides to an uninspired class.

This is certainly the case with most of the spec training courses I have been on recently. Can't comment on SBT mind.

As for manning levels, there has always been a (un)healthy ratio of instructors to students since the move to Halton from Hereford.

I've always wondered what they do when there's no courses on? Never had a straight answer when I asked :PDT_Xtremez_14:

Bring on the Joint Defence College of Logistics where all the stackers, movers, door slammers & gravy splashers can train together...oh, hold on a minute...that's the RLC isn't it?

Boo! :PDT_Xtremez_42:

*Standing by for incoming!*
 
The only reason i mention about numbers is because i went to contact them this morning for some work related topic. I went onto the web site and saw the phone book with everyones name and between the SBT, TMT and POL type cse instructors there are 16 Cpls 4 Sgts and a few civvies chucked in as well.

Now i dont know about you but i think that is excessive as every time ive been there there is what 1 SBT maybe a TMT1 & 2 and maybe a DG/X cse. Now even doubling up instructors thats 8 staff. So what the feck are they doing all day????

Anyway Norman chaged my pic as i thought you would like it, what do you think?

Nice racks eh?
 
I was recommended for instructor duties on my last assessment!!.... god I bloody hope not!


I must admit the last time I was there on a DG cse (oct 07) there was about 3 SBT cse's, a DG, an X and possible a FT cse, IIRC, going on and it was a busy little school of logisitics.
 
That may have been the case then but i very much doubt that there are going to be many SBT or in that case TMT cse's in the next few years. What i would like to know is this, when they ramped up the training i think 7 extra JNCOs were sent to the school. What is going to happen to them now? Are they required there or should they fill gaps that im sure alot of camps have at present?

Nothing against the instructors but seems a waste of manpower to me.
 
I don't think there are the slots at camps for Cpls are there?? With the RAF about to lose 11thou I'd imagine it is more likely that them 7 Cpls posts be disestablished and eaten up by the natural wastage.
 
Im sure there must be some slots empty to be filled otherwise there wouldnt be a problem for out of trade jobs. I believe it is a bit of a non-starter these days to apply for these sort of posts.

Just interested in the current workload for the school these days, i may be surprised and find that they are flat out!!!
 
Thing is, things like that always work behind themselves.... ie.... we cant go out of trade because last year manning was only at 68% (I dont know the actual figure) where as next year we will be able to because as of Apr 10 (I'm sure this is what I was briefed) our fmdl will be at 100%. Mind you that might just be right for my secret airbase.
 
Flat out? Clicking through powerpoint presentations, say "don't need to know that, that's out of date, don't need to know that and then raising TAs when a learner doesn't pass the exam based on all the out of date, don't need to know chite they still have in their lesson preps? Hardly!
 
Don Key said:
Flat out? Clicking through powerpoint presentations, say "don't need to know that, that's out of date, don't need to know that and then raising TAs when a learner doesn't pass the exam based on all the out of date, don't need to know chite they still have in their lesson preps? Hardly!
Click to expand...

My point exactly! In fact, that situation sounds very familiar to something I saw happen last year....do I know you Don Key?
 
Come on guys you know how hard they work on secondary duties and stabbing each other in the back to try for promotion, lets not let actual training get in the way of that sort of work ethic!!!
 
Reply from an informed individual

Reply from an informed individual

Right then, are we sitting comfortably? then I will begin.

My therapist has encouraged me to express my views and opinions as it helps to "Pruge my demons!"

As a student, you only see one side and you are not always aware of the work that goes on to supoort and deliver the training courses. Almost half of the Sgts and 5 Cpls of recent years were not volunteers - Posted on promotion. But all would say that they have enjoyed their at time at Halton.

Some of the courses are out of date to the point that they should not be taught - The Ex Op springs to mind. How can those Course Design types create a relevant course when dealing the "Fear of change", non uniformed "When I", who has not worked in a bomb dump for 20 years?

Lets be honest, a slower pace of life, early stacks and high visibility for promotion, sorry, just read that back and ****ed myself too! They do Duty NCO and guard every eight weeks, but it is an easy life, no aeroplanes and no aircrew to spoil your day.

Win win I think.

These are the views of this individual and not of the MoD or LSTS.

Anywhoo, I am treating this as my daily therapy, so enjoy.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Halton

Halton

It isnot easy being at RAF Halton, LSTS. The guys there work very hard, if it was easy, then you would do it too!
 
Stackoir Blancette! said:
It isnot easy being at RAF Halton, LSTS. The guys there work very hard, if it was easy, then you would do it too!
Click to expand...

Are you speaking from experiance or just what you think? As for guard and duties, well i think most other stations do that as well so why should that factor into how hard it is being an instructor?
 
You mentioned that there are 16 Cpls and 4 Sgts covering SBT and TMT, Fuels, X and DG.

SBT is Phase 2 training all other courses are Phase 3 training.

Did you know that there is at least 8 different phase three courses.

TMT 1 & 2, Vital, SC (for Army, Navy & Civvies), Fuels, X, DG, Ocean Tanker (that's the one in Cyprus) and a few more courses.

Admittedly not all are on at the same time, but you need at least 2 instructors per course. From what I remember when I was there the break down of Cpl's was:

POL courses covered by 2 Cpl's, 2 Sgt's and 2 Civvies
TMT 1 & 2 covered by 2 Cpl's 1 Sgt & 1 Civvy
VItal - 2 Cpl's
Apprenticeship Scheme uses 4 Cpl's and a Sgt not sure how many civvies.
SC Course 1 Cpl and a Civvy

That leaves you 8 Cpl's and a Sgt to cover SBT.

That adds up to 18 Cpl's and I don't think I got everybody.

If everybody is there, inundated with instructors, but you very rarely have a full commitment of instructors. They still have to cover for the guard duties and OOA same as every other unit.

When you only had a few cousres going through you did have time to yourself but that was usually taken up with course prep and course design, always trying to improve a course.

If an instructor just stands at the front clicking through a lesson saying you don't need that and you don't need this is a sure sign of a bad instructor.
 
Granted you have covered alot more courses there and i am not disputing the phase 3 training but if memory serves me i remember a trawl for extra JNCOs for SBT due to an increase of recruiting.

Now if the recruiting is being scaled back which i can envisage happening either now or in the very near future does that not mean they will be overbourne instructors?

I am in no way having a go at the standard of the instructors just the requirement of so many.
 
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