From The Training Department
By James Welch, DC-Td

Anticipated Plans for 2005: THE WAY AHEAD

 The National Department of Training is in the process of “re-inventing” itself and preparing to handle the diverse training needs of the US Coast Guard Auxiliary now and for the future. The “re-inventing” process was based on and driven by the rapid changes occurring within the Coast Guard and Department of Homeland Security, the increasing variety of missions Auxiliarists are being asked to do and customer demand for timely, up-to-date coursework. “Re-inventing” the Department of Training will require change for both the National Training Staff and for the member, and are focused on The Way Ahead.

Those changes will include implementing Department structural changes, increasing Department staff skills and technical competencies, developing alternative delivery methodologies, increasing alignment with the Coast Guard course development standards and courses, significantly increasing the use of learning and testing technology and focusing on blended learning solutions. These changes will have the net effect of providing training solutions/tools more quickly to the members by:

• Reducing the Department to a manageable size
• Leveraging Coast Guard developed courses and development technologies
• Increasing the use of ELearning and ETesting where appropriate
• Placing program responsibility in the appropriate Departments (qualification training)
• Focusing, expanding, and prioritizing member training needs, skills, and competencies
• Increase our ability to respond to the emerging missions (flexibility and timeliness)

Although these changes are significant, they will allow the Department of Training to better support our members to fulfill the National Commodore’s watchwords – READY, RESPONSIVE and RESOLUTE. As an initial step, we will begin aligning with the Coast Guard’s ELearning efforts so we have better access to their courses, development skills and capabilities, and increased flexibility in delivering content through the use of technology. As we prepare to better utilize technology and ELearning, we must also move in a planned and deliberate fashion. Our strategy must be respectful of the technology acceptance threshold of our members. We will continue to use workshops, self-paced manuals, etc. where they are the best methodology to transfer the learning. Our goal is to provide a cost effective and high quality training experience for our members. The most significant changes will be seen in how we approach program content, the use of technology and leverage resources.

 AUXOP Courses

Advanced training is a member benefit, and should not go away. In fact, it should be expanded and enhanced. Our plan is to “re-invent” AUXOP by giving the member greater access to Coast Guard developed courses and expanding the offering beyond the current operational focus.

In the past year, the philosophy of AUXOP courses has been to move more closely to current Coast Guard offerings of the same topic. Through the office of G-WTT, we plan to make specific Coast Guard courses available to members as the AUXOP offering, rather than writing the Auxiliary version. This plan will provide the following benefits: (Partner with DVCTA)

a. Training will be reviewed regularly by Coast Guard experts for accuracy and in a timelier manner

b. These courses can be made available to Auxiliarists through the Coast Guard Institute and other Coast Guard sources

c. These courses are available at no cost to the Auxiliary

d. Completion of a Coast Guard Institute course is the Coast Guard “standard”. Auxiliarists successfully completing these courses will have far more credibility with local commands than completion of an AUXOP course has today. AUXOP courses in their current state will continue to be available to the member and maintained (not revised or updated) until current ANSC inventories are depleted, Members successfully completing the current AUXOP courses will continue to receive full credit for the course.

Value-added Training

We propose creating a new type of training called Value-added Training. This training would eventually address of wide variety of information that would be useful to the Auxiliarist (Auxiliary centric and personal development), but may not necessarily be tied to a mission area. Value-added Training is differentiated from AUXOP in that AUXOP courses have course material that is more sophisticated and complex, requires more training time and will have proctored end-of-course test. Examples of Value-added Training could be:

-Problem-Solving - Writing Skills

-Food Safety - Project Management Practices

-Teamwork & Technology - Intellectual Property & Licensing

-Advertising & Promotion - E Commerce

-Effective Communication Process - Health & Safety

The Department of Training will be adding Instructional Designers, Webmasters, and Course Developers (Web-based, using HTML, Java Script, Flash, etc.) to build these ELearning courses, tools, and make them readily available to the members. (Partner with DVC-TA, DC-I, and DC-A). We will be searching for new application development opportunities for the following online delivery platforms: online self-pace, web-based instructor taught, online simulation applications, Electronic Performance Support Systems (EPSS). A new Application Opportunity Identification Process (AOIP) is under development that will allow department chiefs and/or instructional systems experts to submit their critical online applications (tools) for development consideration.

Qualification Training

The individual Departments currently manage the qualification process and are responsible for its content. The member is best served by turning these qualification programs over to the individual Department for overall content management, revisions, updating, correction and new qualification course development.

“THE WAY AHEAD” will be exciting. It’s our members that count and those we a dedicated to serve.