Download - Royal Australian Navy

18 NAVY ENGINEERING BULLETIN AUGUST 2002
BY WOATA BRUCE TUNNAH
DIRECTORATE OF NAVY
PROFESSIONAL REQUIREMENTS
(E&L)
Aviation Technician Issues
Here in the Directorate of Navy Professional Requirements (Canberra),
we are working hard alongside various other directorates and
departments to balance the Aviation Technician workforce and projected
personnel requirements against operational capability directives. While
not a comprehensive list; some of the other agencies we work with on a
regular basis to achieve this include the Naval Aviation Force Element
Group capability managers (COMAUSNAVAIRGRP), career managers
(DSCM), the Directorate General of Technical Airworthiness (DGTA), Navy
workforce planners (DNWP and DDE-N), the Training Authority (TA-AVN),
the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) and the Australian National
Training Authority (ANTA) to name but a few.
BELOW WOATA BRUCE TUNNAH
To the point, what are the main
issues (from the cat-sponsor
side of the house) that are
taking up the majority of our
time at the moment? Here
goes:
Pay
For some years now we have
been directly involved in the
preparation of a Tri-Service pay
review for Navy, Army and Air
Force Aviation Technicians.
We are not (necessarily)
expecting any significant
changes for Navy out of this
individual case in that we are
already well towards the top of
the existing (current) pay
scales. We will remain actively
involved in this process and,
similarly, keep in touch with
the Directorate of Salaries and
Allowances (DSA) on the
overall issues of pay and
allowances.
Please note that we won’t
attempt to pre-empt any
outcome from the DFRT for
Navy on this matter, but more
advice will be promulgated as
the case proceeds. So, watch
this space!
Occupational Analysis
Once again on a Tri-Service
basis and coordinated through
DGTA, we will be conducting
an occupational analysis (OA)
for the ATA and ATV categories.
A substantial number of you
will be asked to become
actively involved in the OA in
the near future to assist in
providing a valid picture of
what we are doing. What is an
occupational analysis? In
brief, we need to re-establish
the ‘profile’ for what work we
do, where we do that work and
at what level of depth and
complexity. This information
will be used to validate the
training we provide for the
categories now and into the
foreseeable future. Similarly,
there will also be a linkage
between the OA and the DFRT
consideration of the Tri-Service
pay review.
More on this one to come.
Civil Accreditation
The Category Sponsor,
alongside TA-AVN and the
accreditation cell (NPTC-
Canberra) is actively involved
in civil accreditation. Aviation
Technicians who have
successfully completed Initial
Technical Training along with
the corresponding Journal and
having served a minimum of 4
years from commencement of
the Wagga course, can apply
to the NSW Department of
Training and Education for a
Certificate of Aircraft
Maintenance Engineering
(VT26) in either the
Mechanical (ATA) or Avionics
(ATV) streams as appropriate.
Application for the VT26 is
through TA-AVN at HMAS
ALBATROSS.
For a further breakdown of the
accreditation you can expect
to receive during your career;
see ABR27, Vol 1, Chap 10,
Annex A as the reference.
Changes to Promotion
Prerequisites
As part of the finalisation and
implementation for changing
our workforce from a ‘trade’
focus to a ‘technical workforce’
under competency based
training and assessment
(CBTA), the following changes
are intended:
• Following promotion to
Leading Seaman, one of the
prerequisites for promotion to
Petty Officer will be the
requirement to achieve
Maintenance Quality Inspector
(MQI) authorisation. The MQI
authorisation will also be
subject to having completed
the LS-ATT Competency Log.