VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. -- When you take a moment as a supervisor or trainer to document an individual training record for your trainee, you are making positive things happen. Not just for the trainee, but for everyone involved. Talk about time well spent!
Capture all training by making entries into the official training record. A properly documented training record is a true, and legal, account of completed training or training in progress. The individual training record is the primary tool for recording upgrade training. Much duplication and frustration can be prevented by simply chronicling training as it happens the first time around. Do not put it off. As the saying goes – if the training isn't documented, it didn't happen.
Through documentation, you are providing valuable information to key personnel. Your commander, Unit Training Manager and organizational leaders require accurate training data when making decisions that involve people vis-à-vis the mission: staffing, procurement of resources, contingency operations, and more. Can a rash of inaccurate training records adversely and unnecessarily impact unit effectiveness and morale? The answer falls somewhere between quite possibly to definitely!
The Career Field Education & Training Plan, maintained in each work center’s Master Training Plan, is an integral part of the documentation process. Supervisors use the CFETP to plan, prioritize, manage, and execute training within the career field. Further, the supervisor manages Part Two of the CFETP within each training record to identify and certify the trainee’s past and current qualifications. All personnel involved in your training program familiarize and refer to CFETPs to ensure career milestones, such as promotion, upgrade to the 5- or 7-skill level and PME, are clearly defined and made known to the trainee.
An effective way to document training is to sit down with the trainee, review the record together and make notations and certifications as appropriate. Be constructive but also include strengths when making Air Force Form 623A entries, also referred to as journal entries. As with an award or performance appraisal, the written word of a job well done can leave a lasting and positive impression on the member – even more so in a one-on-one setting.
Correct and consistent documentation gives the trainee the best opportunity for success in his or her AF specialty. It also reflects the desirable Wingman qualities of the work center, section or organization to the entire community. Who has access to that record? Individual training records will be available to all personnel in the chain of command to include the UTM upon request, per AFI 36-2201, Paragraph 6.8.2. Chapter 6 addresses AF On-The-Job Training administration including all elements of the training record.