Photo By Ervey Martinez | In a milestone event, a ribbon cutting was held on January 29, 2024, to open the CCAD...... read more read more
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Corpus Christy Army Depot, TX -- In a milestone event, a ribbon cutting was held to open the CCAD aviation maintenance instructional center. The center point of aviation maintenance training is now home to the High Velocity Talent Continuum (HVTC) project.
Spearheaded by Larry Adams, chief of the workforce development division, and Earl Walters, Aviation and Missile Command (AMCOM) HVTC program manager, the project will help prepare the depot for changes in mission that will require upskilling or reschooling of the workforce. These efforts will drive the CCAD training division into a modernization effort that takes advantage of educational opportunities to meet training needs on demand and at the point of need.
AMCOM’s Command Sergeant Major, Bradford Smith, explained, “There are work packages with experienced artisan input, that can be digitized. We develop an advanced training curriculum, and anybody from college/high school or the workforce can train with it. That's like working right beside them, but you're doing it online or in this HVTC office.” This kind of skill training benefits soldiers and artisans. Soldiers may come to the Depot for training to become more proficient and competent with necessary skills to maintain aircraft at their home bases and units.
The groundbreaking event set the standard as no one else in the Army has this. Carlen Chestang, AMCOM G1 Deputy Chief of Staff, elaborated, “The United States Army is experiencing a challenge, that includes skill gaps, workforce shortages, and the disconnect between what's being taught at the academic level and the new technology the depot requires amidst the growing numbers of artisans who are retiring from the workforce.”
The high velocity alliance with the Army furthers the ability to capture knowledge from retiring subject matter experts. This development of a pathway for interns and new employees helps bring in their skills as well. Chestang added, “Make sure you get the right people with the right skills and the right skill sets.”
Chestang also lauded CCAD leadership and thanked the command team for embracing the HVTC concept, “It’s important, not just for CCAD, this is groundbreaking for the Army, and you should be very proud of that.”
Scott Frost, a contractor with the Industrial Base Analysis and Sustainment Program in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, manages the industrial workforce development investment portfolio under an initiative called the National Imperative for Industrial Skills. He explained the growing challenge in assessing training, retaining critical skill sets particularly in the trades, across the defense industrial base, the commercial, and private sector, and the organic industrial base.
The program is a multi-year initiative was primarily focused on the private side. The program partnered with military departments, within industry and academia, to solve problems that are really growing beyond the risk of industry to solve alone.
“The Office of the Secretary of Defense must craft an attack plan against some of these big giant problems like a retiring baby boomer workforce. So that as those new folks are coming out of the HVTC training pipelines we can fill the seats. Even with increased automation, requirements are large,” said Frost.
He further explained, “CCAD for instance, could be moving from sheet metal and aluminum to perhaps composites in the future. And those 35 to 40-year artisans that understand sheet metal/aluminum, they understand that business, but do they understand composites?”
They are the most important component in the HVTC project wheel, the dedicated patriotic, hardworking artisans. They're the engine and subject matter experts that drive all things HVTC. Their dedication to their trade and the knowledge base that's going out the door when they retire is of the greatest value. Being able to capture that knowledge with the new HVTC tools is so critical.
The Commander of the Corpus Christi Army Depot, Colonel Kyle Hogan, emphasized the importance of this new learning concept and how it supports the Army’s four priorities: warfighting, deliver a combat ready force, continuously modernize, and developing the profession.
“At the heart of what the Army does, we close in and destroy the enemy with violence of action and audacity. There's nothing on this planet that moves faster than aviation. Our workforce contributes to the success of the Army and what we have been asked to do.”
Hogan added, “As we train, we're meeting the priorities of the warfighter by developing the Artisan. When we deliver a combat ready force with the aircraft, through the HVTC, we're giving quality products to the warfighters on the ground. By professionalizing the workforce, we are making our artisans better than anybody else’s within the defense industrial base. Continuous modernization means you're moving at the speed of technology, at the speed of innovation, ahead of our adversaries.”
| Date Taken: | 03.21.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 03.21.2024 10:37 |
| Story ID: | 466730 |
| Location: | CORPUS CHRISTI, TX, US |
| Web Views: | 26 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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