Because of my recent focus on my re-certification, I have been talking with my fellow coxswains about the "three year versus annual certifications. I was surprised (and pleased) to hear that most of the feedback I received supported the "it's too long in-between for essential skills" position.
We kicked around some ideas and all felt that it would be very easy to do at least one essential skill certification per year. Or to chose the most essential skill in an AOR and do that one every year.
So in our area it's towing that is still probably most challenging and we do it enough in real time that we need to stay sharp. But in an area where towing has dwindled to almost nothing, maybe SAR practices or MOB would be more relevant? We could still do a fifth-year overall but with a single short set each year.
We need some way to stay in the game for those skills we may be actually called upon to use and I donlt think every three years is enough.
I like it the way it is although I would prefer to do more SAR related evolutions than towing as we do not tow in this AOR. Due to the scarcity of OPFACs in this AOR, it is tough to line up two boats for towing evolutions. As we are in a blue water AOR, we just might get called out for a SAR mission and need to keep these skills honed up.
Originally posted by ENGELJ: We need some way to stay in the game for those skills we may be actually called upon to use and I don't think every three years is enough. Ideas?
I would expect that those motivated to stay sharp will go out and do practice evolutions. Most of these individuals don't need to have a QE tell them they did good enough. They know when they are on their game or not.
I think the three year checkride is an audit. To verify if people are keeping up with their proficiencies or not. Without allocating more resources it would not be possible to tighten up this audit function (QE Checkrides). And the question is what improvement would be had by say doubling the resources spent on the QE Program?
like it the way it is although I would prefer to do more SAR related evolutions than towing as we do not tow in this AOR. Due to the scarcity of OPFACs in this AOR, it is tough to line up two boats for towing evolutions. As we are in a blue water AOR, we just might get called out for a SAR mission and need to keep these skills honed up.
Yes, I can see how that would be quite different. We are NEVER out of site of land here (except in reduced visibility conditions) and it must be very, very different to be sitting in a patch of blue water in the middle of nowhere and trying to calculate a SAR pattern. There especially, additional SAR makes good sense.
And the question is what improvement would be had by say doubling the resources spent on the QE Program?
First, It's not really a "check-ride". Those were the good old days.
But the local opperational departments could provide additional focus. It could be non-mandatory with emphasis on local requirements. It need not be a pass/fail but could rather be a "needs more work" and then be a vehicle to provide additional focused training. Call it an ongoing tune-up towards your next tri-annual recertification.
Part of the issue with doing even a small number of tasks on an annual basis is that it will still require a QE to show up and to schedule multiple whether he is testing you on one or a dozen tasks.
Personally, if we would just do away with the QE system, it would make it a lot easier to get people certified and keep them that way without any real loss in quality. Just have someone else qualified in that position (preferably from another flotilla)supervise and approve the recert tasks and have the flotilla commander sign off on them as a final check before going to DIRAUX. That should work fine for boatcrew.
