A new system designed to be the Gold Standard of UNITAFs training systems, built to compliment the tier system, which addresses those with no experience in UNITAF but who are capable in a role.
==== Tier vs Certification Comparison====
- Certification is per role whereas Tiers are per combat area
- Certifications require human verification whereas Tiers do not
- Certifications are much more difficult to achieve than Tiers
- Everyone has a Tier, but not everyone has to be certified, it's optional
- Tiers are about training and practicing where Certification is about testing and application
==== How Certification Works ====
If a role has a Certification set-up, then users can get certified in the role by being assessed by that roles Certified Instructors. They must first meet any prerequisites for that roles Certification. Certification requires that the user is proficient in a set list of abilities. Users have a Certification Record on their dossier which tracks their progression. Once the user is certified proficient in all abilities of the role, they are Certified.
==== Affect on slotting ====
Roles without certifications use the Tier system in accordance with the current Slot Allocation Policy. Roles with certifications behave differently. If a role has a certification then certified users are treated as Tiered even if they have no tier in this area, this means being certified allows you to slot on release, irrespective of Tier to any role you are certified for (fatigue dependant).
==== Which roles will have Certifications ====
When first implemented no roles will have certifications, but as certifications are created those roles will work as described above. This means some roles will and some roles wont. Certifications will only be applied to roles of Tier I and greater.
==== Abilities & Creating Certifications ====
As mentioned, Certifications are made up of a list of Abilities. Abilities are things that someone proficient in that role would need to be able to demonstrate in order to be considered Certified. Abilities are manually verified by Certified Instructors so they must be clear in their description.
Let's use an example of AT Specialist, Medium.
Examples of abilities for this role might be;
- Hit a stationary target at 500m with an unguided launcher without optics 3 times to 100% accuracy
- Hit a moving target at 500m with an unguided launcher with optics 3 times to 75% accuracy
- Demonstrate a solid understanding of backblast and verbal warning principles
Obviously, my examples might not be great - but you get the picture. Certifications need to be simple to create, and so all that is required to make one, is a bullet point list of abilities like mine above, and once approved for a role, that's it! We'll create a Spreadsheet template to make this even easier too.
As well as being able to require other role certifications before starting one (such as Require Team Leader for Squad Leader, there can be flexibility in abilities, allowing for unconventional ones like;
- Have 50 combat hours as a Fireteam Leader
- Have 25 combat hours as a Radio Operator
This allows for great flexibility.
==== Roles and Role Variation ====
Having a certification for our current roles list is one step, but there are a number of examples where we can go further. Rather than have a bumper edition Certification for Platoon Leader, we can split Platoon Leader as a role for ORBATs into variations such as;
- Platoon Leader (Infantry)
- Platoon Leader (Mechanised)
- Platoon Leader (Weapons)
This means each one could have it's own certification, with Platoon Leader (Infantry) being the main one, and the specialist ones being smaller Add-Ons which have additional abilities on top. Then by requiring Platoon Leader (Infantry) for Platoon Leader (Mechanised) we can simply add Abilities for integrating APC/IFV to Certify them for the additional skills.
Similarly, things like Rotary-pilot (General) can be split as such;
- Rotary-pilot (CH-47)
- Rotary-pilot (CH-53)
- Rotary-pilot (AH-6)
You get the picture, with vehicles we can make certifications specific to the vehicle.
On the roles center, we'll still show hours grouped to the parent role, as we could end up with 100s of variations available on ORBATs. This solves another issue, of knowing what vehicle you have on an ORBAT too!
How: Users can be qualified at a role level by demonstrating a capability and understanding against a list of a abilities, abilities are linked to SOPs.
In the roles centre, when navigating to a role, a new tab on the menu called ‘Qualification’ is present, clicking it will show a list of abilities, and the related SOPs.
In the dossier, when navigating to the practice record, a new button appears on each combat area called Qualifications, and should show active or in-progress qualifications (roles) of the user only. Clicking on a role row would open a progression view, showing the list of abilities, and whether they are not-rated, need improvement or are rated on the ability.
Once all abilities assigned to a role are rated for a user, they are qualified.
For the roles centre, each combat area should have a Chief Instructor, and a Assistant Chief Instructor, who will control the abilities and authorise the issuing of Qualifications in that area. They will be members of the ORGCOC.
On ORBATs, users who are role qualified are able to slot irrespective of tier. If a user is Role Qualified, it shows on the ORBAT in the format of T-X Qualified (where X is their Tier)
Qualifications for roles can have non-ability related requirements such as;
- a rank requirement
- another role qualification requirement (or multiple of them) i.e. require FTL for SL
Abilities should be rated on a users dossier during/after or as a part of FTXs, but they can only rated by someone else who is Qualified in the role and who is a member of the ORGCOC.
The Chief and Assistant Chief instructor in the area are able to monitor all progression in the area via a master view in the Role Center, as well as changes in ratings and the issuing and expiry of ratings.
Qualifications expire after 12 months, or if a major SOP review triggers new abilities, meaning users need to TOP up their qualifications so they can be renewed, in this case the role falls back to the Tier system.
All roles will start without qualifications, and continue to use the Tier system, as roles are chosen and setup with the system, roles will switch over to using Qualifications and Tiers instead.
The process for creating the qualification is a template document which lists the abilities the person needs in the format of (section/ability/related_sops/order).
—— Technical ——
New database tables;
- training_abilities (via Google Template, also has the role reference and sop reference in, both unique)
- training_abilities_in_users (controllers will populate this as users are rated and store here)
- operations_roles_qual_req (allow one qual to require another)
Updates to;
- operations_roles (add CI and ACI, min rank for Qual)
New views
- Roles Center, Combat Area progression views
- Roles Center, Qual view for roles with abilities list
- Dossier, quals in progress per combat area
- Dossier, qual detail with abilities list
Updated views
- Roles Center, show users which are qualified on the people list
- Dossier, Add qual button to practice record view