Canada moves to 2% GDP end of FY25/26 - PMMC

[dapaterson]

Isn't that about double of previous years intakes?

Applications dropped precipitously during the early years of COVID. That has recovered, and the new online application portal is a strong step forward to streamline the application process.

Right now training capacity for BMQ / BMOQ is under review to optimize and look for other options (such as the RCN BMQ).

The other issue is success by occupation in recruiting. Bringing in 100 bottle washers when you really need hip hop dancers doesn't solve your hip hop dancing capacity problem.


My understanding is that last year's recruiting success also improved SIP by occupation over prior years. Still not 100% across the board, but significantly better than prior years.

 

[dapaterson]

I think our more academic trades and occupations may need it, the CFAT. But I suspect most of what we do in the CAF can be learned with some formal training and then an OJT period. Without needing a CFAT level.

CFAT lets you know that Bloggins isn't good at math and has difficulty with patter matching, so probably shouldn't be a MMT.

Remember, most of the folks you have met in the CAF were filtered through the CFAT; the folks who couldn't get through that gate you didn't see.

 

[Halifax Tar]

CFAT lets you know that Bloggins isn't good at math and has difficulty with patter matching, so probably shouldn't be a MMT.

If the bins are empty...

No, but I get it. Also math is overrated. We all have calculators on our hips 24/7 now.

Which incidentally fly's in the face of what I was told in school in the 80s and 90s. lol

Remember, most of the folks you have met in the CAF were filtered through the CFAT; the folks who couldn't get through that gate you didn't see.

I am not sure that's always a glowing endorsement of the CFAT.

 

[dapaterson]

If the bins are empty...

No, but I get it. Also math is overrated. We all have calculators on our hips 24/7 now.

Which incidentally fly's in the face of what I was told in school in the 80s and 90s. lol



I am not sure that's always a glowing endorsement of the CFAT.

The folks who are screened out are "interesting". The CAF has lots of data about what happens when folks who meet the bare minimums are recruited - surprise, it results it lots of pre OFP releases and an above average number of administrative and disciplinary issues. Waiving even that minimum has predictably resulted in those problems.

 

[Czech_pivo]

This year the CFRG recruited ~7002 pers. The total SIP (not MOSID specific) was ~6957. Which means we got 45 more new recruits than was asked.

There are still trades that didn't hit SIP. But by and large most trade numbers were good. CFRG SIP two years ago was ~4500, which we didn't hit.


It does. No more common initial Mar Tech training, you go right into your electrical or mechanical training day one. It will reduce the time to fully trained specialist, and it will relieve some of the burden on the training system.

The entire RCN is going to undergo trade revamp to look more US style in many ways. Most trades are going to be operator maintainers like Mar Techs are. The challenge here is going to be training the operators to be techs. The techs are already operators in many cases. Many of the current operators don't have the education/mindset to be maintainers, which of course is why they are operators. Totally different way of thinking.

Awesome news on the 7k new recruits! Any sense if we had an overall 'net gain' in the CAF yoy? If yes, by how much?

 

[Colin Parkinson]

Applications dropped precipitously during the early years of COVID. That has recovered, and the new online application portal is a strong step forward to streamline the application process.

Right now training capacity for BMW / BMOQ is under review to optimize and look for other options (such as the RCN BMQ).

The other issue is success by occupation in recruiting. Bringing in 100 bottle washers when you really need hip hop dancers doesn't solve your hip hop dancing capacity problem.


My understanding is that last year's recruiting success also improved SIP by occupation over prior years. Still not 100% across the board, but significantly better than prior years.

Nice to see a "win" in the recruiting side regardless.

 

[Furniture]

My issue with CFAT is I have met someone who did a trade for a decade successfully (pre CFAT), but got out and when they went to go back in couldn’t get in the same trade because their CFAT score was too low.

It could be leading to good potential troops being kept out of the military.

Same thing civvy side, I saw one apprentice candidate who couldn’t pass their aptitude test but was extremely hands on (and had already passed two years of schooling in the field). He ended up getting a apprenticeship elsewhere, getting his ticket and joining as a ticketed tradesman despite that test saying he was ‘incapable’.

The dangerous thing is we look at CFAT and forget that education requirements also create issues. For several years, and maybe even to this day, I didn't meet the requirements to be in my occupation. The idiots in charge back in the mid-00's decided that grade 12 math was a minimum requirement to be a Met Tech. I stopped at grade 11 because I had zero interest in university. Despite not having grade 12 math, I have managed to be extremely successful in my career. How many other potentially extremely successful people did we turn away because they didn't meet an arbitrary requirement decided upon by a bitter/out of touch MWO/LCol who wanted to make the next generation ______ "better".

 

[McG]

... a bitter/out of touch MWO/LCol ...

Do you really have this much hate and contempt for every person doing their job in NDHQ? You don't know them, you don't know the choices they have nor the decisions they are making, but you need to deride them on a hypothetical to make your point?

 

[FJAG]

Also math is overrated. We all have calculators on our hips 24/7 now.

Math is good in schools to build cognitive functioning in children. In adulthood - who knows, but I know that I haven't used algebra since 1970. Trigonometry - oh yeah. Lots; algebra - never.

How many other potentially extremely successful people did we turn away because they didn't meet an arbitrary requirement decided upon by a bitter/out of touch MWO/LCol who wanted to make the next generation ______ "better".

As an OCTP offr, I'm with you 100%. I decided against university because I was sick and tired of school. Spending 30 days absent in my last term in Grade 13 to go to the armouries to do maintenance on my truck showed that. We need better intake program choices than the either or we have these days. Bring back OCTP and let's adopt a US style warrant officer program for specialists.

At the same time, the recruiting successes and the 32 CBG program results are showing that the CAF is having some clear successes. Talking to a serving battery commander recently, the success at the intake level seems to be creating throughput problems for the school in that to keep up with the basic intakes, intermediate level courses are suffering.

 

[dapaterson]

The dangerous thing is we look at CFAT and forget that education requirements also create issues. For several years, and maybe even to this day, I didn't meet the requirements to be in my occupation. The idiots in charge back in the mid-00's decided that grade 12 math was a minimum requirement to be a Met Tech. I stopped at grade 11 because I had zero interest in university. Despite not having grade 12 math, I have managed to be extremely successful in my career. How many other potentially extremely successful people did we turn away because they didn't meet an arbitrary requirement decided upon by a bitter/out of touch MWO/LCol who wanted to make the next generation ______ "better".

When LGen Lamarre was CMP the Log Branch decided his education did not meet the requirements to be a Log O.