Army - The Soldiers' Newspaper

The Stay Army web site, an easily-found link from your Army homepage, it will answer all your questions about what the other trades do. Photo by Cpl Belinda Mepham, Army newspaper

A site for sore eyes

The Stay Army web site is focused on assisting soldiers. It aims to make it easier to access information about careers and trade transfers by anyone in the chain of command who needs it.

It is a reference source for a range of information for both full-time and part-time soldiers.

It is intended to provide the soldier directly, or via the unit command and administrative framework, with the information he or she needs to make an informed decision about a future in the Army.

It contains information on every employment category in the Army, along with entry qualifications, posting localities, pay and rank structure details.

The site has proven popular with soldiers and has already received more than 10,000 hits.

Stay Army assists soldiers by giving them an information resource to aid their personal career decisions.

Soldiers who are looking for a change now have access to a site where they can see what else they can do across the Army, then discuss it with their family and their boss.

It reduces the time it takes to get facts about other trades so soldiers, commanders and career managers can discuss career options.

The bonus for the Army is that by making this resource available, it aids in retaining some personnel who might otherwise look to civvy street for alternative employment.

The site is navigated by using a menu bar located in the left margin, which will display active pages, plus the mandatory Defence links folder, calendar and site map pages.

Throughout the site are links to information sources outside the site, such as pay, CEVAM, MSBS and Comsuper, return of service obligation, posting locality tool and trade transfer information.

The key information resource is the corps and trade information in the functional directory folder, which contains an introduction to each corps and the latest information on each trade within that corps.

Trade information includes a general description, main job functions, education prerequisites, training details, employment locations, pay group, any special requirements and any civil accreditation details.

There is also a career flowchart that details career progression within the trade, all training requirements, OJT requirements, pay groups and any follow-on trades.

This information resource and decision support tool is for soldiers and their families so that, when they reach a decision point in their career, they have all the information available so they can make an informed decision.

Soldiers can access the site on the world wide web from home and really involves their families in the decision-making process.

What the site doesn’t do is enable the soldier to bypass the normal chain of command and administrative processes, guarantee transfer to another trade or electronically submit transfer applications directly to SCMA.