WASHINGTON: As Air Force officials focus on giving Airmen more time to do their primary duty and reduce additional duties, senior leaders issued new policy guidance in March to streamline ancillary training and expeditionary skills training programs.
“Air Staff, the A1 (personnel) community and major command functional owners are working together to better manage ancillary and expeditionary skills training across the Total Force, ultimately giving Airmen time back to do their jobs,” said Lt. Gen. Richard Newton, Air Force Personnel and Manpower deputy chief of staff.
Two new guidance memorandums revise Air Force Instruction 36-2201, Training Development, Delivery and Evaluation, and address four new categories of ancillary training: annual Total Force awareness, selected force training, event-driven training and expeditionary skills training.
The new policy on ancillary training, signed March 26, establishes responsibilities for program management and describes the gatekeeper process for vetting ancillary training requirements.
“This ensures senior leadership has full situational awareness on training time requirements, and allows for establishment of priorities, setting limits and communicating results,” General Newton said.
The new guidance also includes a list of ancillary training no longer required, including Constitution Day training, crime prevention, family care plan brief, local area survival training, equal opportunity for supervisors of civilians, cultural awareness and initial security orientation-uncleared version.
Working with the Air Force chief of staff-approved Air Force Expeditionary Center charter and the Vice CSAF-approved Expeditionary Skills Senior Review Group, or ESSRG, charter, the new guidance on expeditionary skills training, signed March 1, defines expeditionary skills tiered-training requirements and validation processes, and closes significant policy gaps, according to Joe McDade, Air Force personnel and manpower force development director.
“We now have an improved enterprise-wide policy, process and structure that provide training programs designed to prepare our Airmen for expeditionary missions outside the confines of the traditional airbase environment,” said Mr. McDade.
The ESSRG is the Air Force’s decision-making body used to identify and validate new expeditionary skills training requirements, synchronize and efficiently administer the training and address other corporate-level expeditionary skills training issues.
“Essentially, the ESSRG synchronizes expeditionary skills training initiatives…with the goal of matching resources with validated requirements,” said Mr. McDade.
The new policy guidance is one of many changes taking place to improve Airmen’s time, and is a direct result of feedback from the August 2008 unit visits chartered by General Newton to find impacts to Airmen’s time.
