Page 14 - Mind, Body & Spirit Number 104 2020/21

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www.raptcassociation.org.uk
Lester, SSgt Rich Moody, Sgt Steph Harris and myself) discovered that we were well placed to be able to offer real value and set about creating a suite of eLearning material that included:
• An enduring, quarterly updated Essential Reading list.
• ALDP update.
• FISS / ODR training package.
• PD Incident Management information.
• RFT(S) Update, well in advance of the Non GCC implementation.
• Sickle Cell Awareness.
• Heat Illness policy update.
• Anti and Post Natal PT Delivery.
• The Effects of COVID-19 on physical fitness eLearning package.
It is hoped that the face to face Regional Study Periods and the RAPTC Commandants Conference will soon be able to resume. However, in the short term, the feedback we’ve received suggests that the online package has been a real success and has afforded our staff at all levels the opportunity to remain current at a time where everyone is facing huge challenges.
The Training and Development Team during lockdown
At the time of writing, I’m sat in my kitchen, on my dining table, alongside my 7-year-old daughter whilst she recites her 5 times tables with her online classmates. Crazy times we’re living in! Shortly after the first lockdown began in March 20, I was asked to cover the role of the HQs Trade Specialist Advisor after the previous SMI, Gary Chekansky began his second career in the big wide world. From then, it’s been a steep but hugely rewarding learning curve! One thing that hasn’t changed however is the tempo of which the TDT have been tasked with new and enduring projects.
There are far too many threads to summarise, but to capture a glimpse of this last year in TDT, the flowchart offers a simple insight. Looking forward, the department will see lots of new faces and new challenges are always just around the corner. It’s been a privilege to work with some fantastic operators who I’m sure will do great things in their next appointment. Let’s hope 2021 will allow us to do more than log on from home!
WO2 (QMSI) I Lester RAPTC Lead Analyst
As I approach my 40th year in Service who would ever have thought that we would be working from home? Now in lockdown 3, the year seems to have blown by and it seems like yesterday that this COVID 19 virus was coming this way and we were all wondering how we would be able to continue working from home. Then came the CHS account which meant we were able to share and collaborate from our own laptops but that was very limited and frustrating as documents could not be sent by email or printed or downloaded to our own devices. We (TDT) soldiered on and produced a draft format for the Physical Training Leader (PTL course) based on the ETL but with some additional bodyweight strength and conditioning exercises pulled from the APTS. The rationale for the course was based on a shortage of AAPTIs and that units rarely spent more than a couple of months in their permanent base due to operational and training commitments. After the trial, the Inval suggested that it was a roaring success. An ExVal has been conducted and we are waiting on the report before any further action or implementation takes place.
Halfway through lockdown 1 the government allowed golf courses to open and my sanity was spared, I played as much as I could to help keep me sane and won a SE District golf competition held at Old Thorns. Lockdown 2 saw us able to work in limited numbers from our office location and we were able to transfer all our good work back to SharePoint and put the CHS system to bed. Work started to ramp up, a coroner’s report on heat illness directed HQ RAPTC to conduct a targeted ExVal on the training conducted on heat illness and the use of the WBGT over the last two years across all PTI courses, this is ongoing and seems to be progressing nicely. Just before lockdown 3 some of us were issued with the My MODNET laptops, a great piece of kit that enables us to work from home and access all that we can access if working from the office. But it’s a trying time both physically and mentally it can be a very lonely and quiet experience with just me and Blue, my dog, on the sofa tapping away at the keyboard. One plus for my wife is that she now gets a nice home cooked fresh meal when returning home from her demanding job as a Health Care worker and she has been continually working throughout this crisis. Let’s hope 2021 sees us getting back to normal in some way and maybe we may get to go on holiday, fingers crossed on that one.
SMAA farewell by ZOOM