Let’s get technical

What Makes Techo’s Tick? looks at the career that involves people such as Leading Aircraftman Chris Georgiadis, an Avionics Technician from No.76 Squadron.

By SQNLDR Paul White

In 1984, the Commonwealth Government mandated a competency-based training system for all Commonwealth-funded training.

That is, if you could demonstrate competencies at a skill set then you met the requirements for a certificate award. It didn’t matter how these skills were acquired either – you just had to prove yourself during an assessment.

Late in the 1980s Defence was asked to comply with this competency system for its training programs. At the same time a review was under way to modernise our technical training system for both Air Force aviation and ground engineering – a technical trades restructure that better streamlined our training delivery resources and better prepared our technicians for emerging technologies while providing meaningful civilian accreditation.

Coincidently, government cuts were ordered and commercialisation, rationalisation, efficiency reviews, downsizing, rightsizing and redundancies became the words of the ’90s. In 1990 a developing Technical Trades Restructure was a bulging, tantalisingly ripe berry ready to be picked – and so it was!

These recollections of mine aren’t the whole story of course but they set the scene for What Makes Techo’s Tick? by Squadron Leader Jim Xinos. His book explores the theme that our technical capabilities have borne the brunt of a decade of cuts and efficiency drives.

The aviation technical workforce makes up some 40 per cent of the airmen/women workforce so any downsizing was always going to have a significant impact. Have the cuts gone too far? SQNLDR Xinos believes so.

“Pilots without maintainers are just fast pedestrians with sunglasses and a cool jacket.” The author of this comment remains unknown, but it made this aging maintainer smile. It is an effective start to a book that details the role of maintainers, the cost of training them and then the impact of them leaving the ADF with their leadership, skills and experience while creating a widening skill gap. Make no mistake; this book is not just about maintainers, for SQNLDR Xinos might have unwittingly written about every one of us..

His analysis on capability, organisational health and personnel management benefits from a wide collection of published works and private interviews, which can be applied and interpreted broadly.

Of particular mention is the capability multiplier of latency. SQNLDR Xinos argues that, although expensive, latency directly contributes to readiness and the more important requirement of sustainability. He further suggests that too much latency can also be bad for the organisation – the trick is to judge how much is needed. In the current environment we might get to see just how the judgment stacks up.

On the negative side the reader might find the continuous use of the F/A-18 environment for the case studies a little tedious and some claims lack sufficient supporting evidence. Some will also find fault with one or two of the captioned photographs.

Otherwise, What Makes Techo’s Tick? is a thought-provoking read with a balanced assessment of our technical structure that could easily be substituted for any other workgroup. As the ADF enters the “people are valued” culture, this book provides the personnel managers, strategic thinkers and workforce managers with a valid starting point to develop future solutions. Copies are available from the Aerospace Centre.

• SQNLDR White is a Staff Officer at HQ Maritime Patrol.

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