Regional Emergency Service Academies?

Started by RiverAux, January 23, 2010, 12:44:02 AM

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DG


RADIOMAN015

Quote from: Who_knows? on January 23, 2010, 12:47:17 AM
This is being looked at. One of the issues that would need to be resolved, is ensuring that all academies are training to the same standard.
Gee, I always thought that ALL of our ES training could be successfully completed at the squadron level with assistance from groups (where applicable) and the applicable wing.  Generally "volunteers" (such as fire departments, CERT etc), get their training in their communities, or perhaps an area training facility, generally within 1 hour or less drive time for the volunteer.  Most of this training is done week nights or on weekends.
Surely, a regional type "advanced" training capability would reduce the travel & expense.  HOWEVER, most senior members can't afford to take off much time during the week to go to training.

CAP tends to go overboard with fixed hours training attendance requirements (versus just self study & demonstration that you have the skills),  and hopefully we won't see a requirement for mandatory attendance at some sort of regional training. 

Maybe a better approach should be to look at how local training (squadron/group level) can be enhanced?
RM   

Spike

yeah....not too keen on the idea of "regional training centers" myself.  If we need them then get an MOU from DOD to use military installations.  CAP Corporate need not own anymore stuff. 

RiverAux

I don't see how having regional academies invalidates the ability of squadrons to train folks.  If anything it will enhance it.   Not all squadrons have folks current and qualified in all ES specialties and are incapable of conducting all training on their own.  Such regional academies offer their members a chance to go get trained in stuff that is not currently available locally and afterwards they will be able to pass that knowledge along at the local level.  As it is now, they have to hope they can convince some other unit to train their folks.

And realistically, doing the training all at once rather than spreading it out over months or even years in some cases, is much more effective.  I know that when I was recently presented the choice of getting some non-CAP related training that could either be done all in one week or spread out over several nights a week for two months, I took the week.  Of course not everyone is going to have the option to take off a week for an emergency service academy, but it will give them another option. 

Smithsonia

#24
Academies? Think small and grow them up. Run it like a one week region staff college with 1 week courses and train up the senior wing/region/national staffs - DOs, Comms, LOs, ES Officers, PIO/PAO, COSs, PDOs, Finance, Inspector Generals, Stan Evals, GSAR, Disaster Relief, then grow it to accommodate deeper subjects. Get into the field. Train subjects from medical triage and evacuation, to ARES level large Comm liaison and set ups, to full multi day 15 plane SARs with full GT coordination.

Do 2-3 days of classes and 4 days in the field exercises (with instructors practicing mentorship along side of the students), develop table tops and instructional aids for the squadrons/ groups.

Then in a few years of shake out, hire professionals that are leaving the services: former FEMA employees, State disaster directors, etc... and go semi pro... meaning integration of the volunteer Patrol with the sophisticated applications of the best training the government has. Let a former FEMA Director, CAP-USAF General, or retired 4 star run the thing and grow it up. Do more with a little, then go for top down first rate training, and include the volunteer cadre as fast as you can.

Don't think it can be done? Here's an outsourced Air Force for profit Flight Academy in Pueblo Colorado.
http://www.baseops.net/militarypilot/usaf_ift.html

Make the Academy the best it can be. Then train the graduates higher standards. The and only then go all professional training at the academies, train the trainers, and send them to the squadron level (volunteers).

Inside this academy, develop standards that are the best practices. Draw from the community of scientists and engineers of NASA, Military, FEMA, DOD(Darpa) Give duty assignments to people who've recently returned from Afghanistan or Haiti and would like a break for a year or two. That way CAP can get some Dollar a year people with lots of real work experience... actually we already get a bunch of highly trained professionals for free, but we need to organize them.

Put the academy in the center of the country (so it is convenient travel) and grow it up through vision, enterprise, and sweat.

Take over some of the mom and pop training from various groups like SAR Dog, RACE/ARES, mid to small town county/city Disaster managers, etc. Rotate students on a progressions of one week at a time... so that most items are taught in 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 progressive levels. One week gets you to level one. Two weeks goes to level 2, etc. That way student can some in for 1 week a year and reach level 5 over a 5 year span (OR) go 4 to 5 weeks in a row and finish the course in a month to 6 weeks. This way we could accommodate both retirees with lots of time or the fully otherwise employed members of CAP.

Teach subjects which are analogous but different from standard CAP so we get liaison associations as a side benefit.

Start with 20 subjects and 4 to 5 levels in one location, then expand as the need grows. Certify students, track their successes and failures, rewrite the courses over a 5 year period. Prove we can do it. Then expand it from one national site to various regional sites in the following 5 years.

There's the 10 year plan. I nominate Colorado as the first site for the CAP Service Academy. But then, I am in Colorado.
With regards;
ED OBRIEN

ZigZag911

Regional academies are a way for wings with stronger ES programs help wings with some weknesses bring their mission training up to speed...one of the evident problems in some wings is not lack of willingness to do the ES mission, but rather lack of hjghly qualified trainers.

So, best case scenario, a wing's ES leadership takes the region level training, brings it back home, down to squadron level.

Gunner C

IMO, the best case would be NESA trains the cadre for the regional school and maintains a presence to ensure that the courses are taught to standard.  Otherwise, we'll just water it down with personal techniques rather than a single standard. 

Smithsonia

#27
Gunner;
^^^^
Regarding the syllabus and where the information comes from. Being that it is an "academy" by the book training to standards is important.

However, inside CAP is a vast array of tribal knowledge that is known only to a limited number of squadrons, ICs, ES Teams, etc. Having an academy to vacuum up all tribal knowledge into a centralized location is one of the virtues of this concept. Meaning a library of best practices that's field tested and expands then teaches and disseminates the knowledge is very valuable.

We lose a great deal of information when an old hand dies or retires. We've lost much because it wasn't ever codified. The Army's Ft. Irwin and Marine Field Trainers satisfy this in the military. We need a similar centralized
point of reference. In fact the best ICs, field craft experts, and practitoners... should be part of teaching corps for precisely this reason. They should be a ready reference for ICs in the field experiencing thorny problems. The teaching corps should be online and on the phone regularly as they will see much from Intelligence Central otherwise known as the Academy.

CAP needs not only to train the cadre but resource and distribute all tested and qualified information in a "best practices" manner.
With regards;
ED OBRIEN

NavLT

Middle East Region has been doing a 1 week SAR College for quite a while they bring people from all over the region and offer lots of function specific training with highly qualified instructors.  Air ops has 8-10 CAP A/C (a couple from each wing) to allow folks to practice searches with airspace concerns and Flightline ops like where we were found wanting during Katrina.

I loved it and miss it now that I am not in the region anymore.  It is an awsome idea, it works great for ICS training and realy makes you work with people based on Qual not local history.  It does require significant region support (DCS).

V/R
LT J.