Ms. Carol Gaudette, CE Civilian Career Field Manager, Headquarters United States Air Force, Pentagon, Washington D.C., and Mr. Mark Morgan, Federal Wage System Force Development Manager, Air Force Civil Engineer Center, Tyndall, AFB.
In today's high deployment tempo, our Federal Wage System (FWS) employees have shouldered a great deal of responsibility to ensure that our Air Force installations remain the premier power projection platforms in the world. We also depend on civil service engineers to train and lead our military and civilian workforce. Therefore, an agile and adaptive career development program is critical for FWS employee development.
Currently, the majority of upgrade training, skills qualification, certifications, and career progression opportunities are focused on military workforce development. The CE Functional Advisory Council’s (FAC) Wage Grade Panel has been hard at work developing a renewed training focus on FWS civil service employees. The panel has crafted and published the Career Field Education and Training Plans (CFETPs) for the CE FWS workforce, as well as appointed a CE FWS Force Development Manager (FDM). Through a dedicated effort by the Wage Grade Panel and military Force Development Managers, eight comprehensive CFETPs have been crafted to align with those of your military counterparts. These training plans, covering over 60 FWS occupational series, are intended to be used as a formalized tool for supervisors and managers to identify and manage a FWS employee's qualifications, education, and training requirements. They provide FWS personnel with a clear career path and instill rigor in all aspects of their respective occupational series. The CFETPs are also multipurpose documents which outline logical growth plans, and make training identifiable and budget defendable. Newly released Air Force Guidance Memorandum 2019-32-03 drives the intent of the CE Enterprise Civilian Education and Training Plans, directing their use to identify mission needs, training requirements and proper documentation.
Utilizing the guidance provided in eight comprehensive CFETPs will enable CE FWS individuals to receive effective and efficient training at the appropriate time in their career. Shop supervisors will use these training plans as a road map to develop a list of training requirements, or a shop “Master Task List (MTL)”, which encompasses every training task the shop is responsible for accomplishing. Once the MTL is established, the shop supervisor will then create duty position specific tasks. Duty specific tasks will then be assigned to each duty position, which is referred to as the Duty Task List (DTL). The DTL is specific to each skill level and duty position. It identifies training requirements tailored to enhance and improve each individuals existing skillset. To deploy and sustain this initiative, Brigadier General Allen, Director of Civil Engineers, has established the CE Federal Wage System Force Development Manager position. This position works in AFCEC Force Development (AFCEC/COF) alongside nine active duty CE Military Force Development Managers. The CE FWS Force Development Manager’s responsibilities include assisting in the execution of CE FWS civilian development strategy, gathering and aggregating training requirements, and determining the appropriate methods of execution. This position is also the primary point of contact for both CE FWS CFETPs and the Air Force Training Record system reach back for CE FWS civilians.
The FWS CFETPs can be viewed and downloaded from two locations: (1) Air Force e-Publications web-page (in the filter search for “WG” and all eight FWS CFETPs will show up); or (2) Air Force Training Record (AFTR) learning management system. Once in the Air Force Civil Engineer Virtual Learning Center, click on “My Transcript”, then click on the “AFTR” icon to access AFTR. The CFETPs are located under the “Training” header. If you experience issues accessing the AFTR learning management system, contact the CE-Virtual Learning Center and AFTR help desk at phone number: 850-283-2779 or e-mail: afcec.vlc@us.af.mil for assistance.
For any questions concerning CFETPs or FWS Force Development initiatives, contact FWS FDM, Mr. Mark Morgan at mark.morgan.10.ctr@us.af.mil or DSN 312-523-6376.