by Eric M. Grill
Air Force Personnel, Services and Manpower Public Affairs
11/1/2011 - RANDOLPH AIR FORCE BASE, Texas (AFNS) -- The 2012 Noncommissioned Officer Retraining Program concluded Oct. 26 with 870 Air Force NCOs identified to transition to new career fields.
The NCORP consists of two-phases -- voluntary and involuntary -- designed to sustain the enlisted force by retraining second-term and career Airmen from overage Air Force Specialty Codes to shortage AFSCs.
Phase I, which ran from July 13 to Sept. 26, saw 83 percent of the designated NCOs volunteered to retrain into their choice of career fields with shortages, said Chief Master Sgt. Shannon Parker, the Air Force Personnel Center's chief of enlisted skills management. In phase II, non-volunteers were selected for retraining based on the remaining Air Force needs.
The major program change for FY12 NCORP was running phase II concurrently for restricted AFSCs along with the phase I program for unrestricted AFSCs, officials said. Restricted AFSCs are those AFSCs that are only permitted to retrain into the same career field with a shred-out. Airmen in restricted AFSCs had 30 days to volunteer for retraining before entering Phase II.
"This better met mission objectives and allowed for the Air Force to meet program goals within 60 days and reduce the potential for phase II," Parker said. "While we still had an involuntary phase, we are very happy with the results, not only because we met our program objective, but did so with such a large voluntary effort."
Airmen were also allowed to apply for special duties such as military training instructors, military training leaders and recruiting, she said.
"This provided Airmen more options and greater flexibility, while at the same time meeting Air Force needs," Parker said.
The fiscal 2012 NCORP concluded meeting 100-percent of the target goal, Parker said. Even though the objectives were met, there are still some retraining AFSCs available and encourage eligible Airmen to volunteer.
Airmen can find the available Air Force specialties on the Retraining Advisory List located on the Air Force Personnel Services website.
