Symposium students complete 32,000 hours of instruction

  • Published
  • By 1st Lt. Chuck Widener
  • Air Force Print News
LOUISVILLE, Ky. --  Students and instructors said they developed a new appreciation for the word “training” during the 2005 Environmental Training Symposium, which ended here Feb. 11.

About 153 instructors taught 111 courses to more than 1,250 students throughout the week-long event.

More than 32,100 hours of instruction were given during the training symposium, which required attendees to participate in at least 26 hours of classes, said J.P. Smith, the symposium director.

On track to complete nearly 30 hours of instruction during the event was Staff Sgt. Jared Scoggins of the Air Force Repair Enhancement Program at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Ariz.

The circuit card technician also is the unit’s environmental coordinator, and he said he learned a lot about where to obtain information relating to a number of issues relating to his jobs.

“I signed up for 30 classes and pretty much got all the ones I wanted,” he said. “They all have given me a broad overview of everything.”

The safety courses benefited the seven-year veteran the most, he said, but it was the media training course that surprised him.

“I thought it was going to be a horrible two-hour block of instruction,” Sergeant Scoggins said. “But the class taught me a lot. Now I watch the news in a totally different light, and if I was deployed, I feel like I definitely could (work with) the media much better.”

Of those who attended the training symposium, and this included students from across the Air Force, other government agencies and national academia, about 83 percent of them were attending the event for the first time.

“That tells us there is a big need for the curriculum and training,” Mr. Smith said of the event.

Part of that curriculum -- based on trends reported by bases, the Environmental Protection Agency and other organizations -- included a 10-hour Occupational Safety and Health Administration certification course. About 176 students attended the course, which was broken into 10 one-hour classes relating to general safety issues. Each student who completed the course received the certification, which unit officials typically pay $1,600 per student to obtain.

Another 89 students attended the eight-hour hazardous waste operations refresher course, which is required by federal regulations for enlisted, officer and civilian Airmen who work with hazardous waste.

These two courses alone play a big role in training and certifying people, Mr. Smith said. Combined with the 100 other courses, major command officials are able to use the training symposium to meet their annual training requirements.

“Air Combat Command alone is able to meet 35 to 40 percent of its annual training requirement using this one-week training symposium,” Mr. Smith said. “That means the command can train a large number of people over the course of one week instead of one year, lowering the training footprint on our wings.”

Staff Sgt. Kristen Fiedler received 28 hours of instruction during the event. The noncommissioned officer in charge of bioenvironmental engineering at Langley AFB, Va., said the week’s worth of training was very beneficial for her.

“I was able to attend the top 10 courses I requested,” she said. “I also was enrolled in a number of other courses. I ended up learning some new things that I actually hadn’t planned on learning about.”

The Sergeant Fielder attended an asbestos awareness training course, which directly relates to her job and recertifies her in that particular area of her career field.

It is all a part of incorporating cost-effective and focused training to help define mission needs, Mr. Smith said.

“We call it ‘right fit’ training. Our goal is to focus on the training needs of the supporting commands so we can give them a means to obtain the specific skills and knowledge they need to accomplish the mission,” he said. “Our focus is on the customer, and I feel like the training symposium was very successful in accomplishing that need this year.” (Courtesy of ACC News Service)