I have it on good authority that there are folks listening to some of what's being said.
I spent 2 hours the other day in a meeting that was, I believe, productive.
I think though that the one thing that's not really trickling up the chain is the looming time crisis.
By that I mean I'm concerned regarding the amount of time I will actually have to deliver training on the ship to WENG trainees, and for the journeymen to complete regular corrective and preventative maintenance. Not to mention, the ship's priorities will trump individual training.
Let me expound on that.
Take an average work week. Daily routine is from 0800-1545. So, 7:45. Subtract from that 60 minutes for lunch, and 20 minutes for Stand easy. We're now down to 6:25. Cleaning stations is an hour and a half, so now we're down to 4:55.
This is the maximum that's available for use on any given day.
A total of 24:35 per week.
If we subtract from that even just 2 hours per week for PT, we're now at 22:35.
Every week is either a major or minor storing while alongside, so subtract another 2 hours. 20:35
Duty watches are roughly once every 3 weeks for MS&B, once qualified, so that would have us take one day per three week out, so 4:55/3 or about 1:40 per week gone. Alas, the WENG will be doing their MCR Packages when they first arrive, and that's a 1:5 rotation, so every week for the first three months they're onboard, they'll be losing 4:55, not 1:40. However, over the course of the 2-3 years they're onboard, the average will probably be closer to 2:00.
Still, that puts them down to a maximum of 18:35 per week of available training time while alongside.
There are a myriad of other "things" that go on onboard a ship that will steal a portion of that available time.
The other, REALLY CRITICAL part of this is that just tossing the trainee a tech manual and shoving him/her in a corner to go read it is not a practical means for instruction. Part of having them on the ship is mentoring. The LS/MS/PO2 journeymen are to teach them. What does that mean? It means that even if I only provide supervision for 50% of their instructional time (ie they're reading/studying half the time, and being mentored or taught the other 50%) It means that, I lose one of my journeymen Technicians for just about 9 hours a week.
Right now, in my current manning situation, that means that per month, the MS&B of my section will be able to complete just 36 hours of corrective or preventative maintenance.
Out of a theoretical work month of 4 weeks, with 155 working hours (20x7:45), I'm only able to get 36 hours of work out of my Journeyman.
If I have a 2nd Journeyman, whom I can employ full time, that's only an additional 75 hours per month, for a total of 111 person hours available.
THAT is what I see as being the most critical issue that has not been addressed....
NS