Page 8 - 2020 AMA Winter

AMAHQ
KEEPING ADVENTUROUS TRAINING COVID SECURE
Richard Wells, Joint Service Mountain Training Centre Training Support Officer
I’ve been set an almost impossible task... draft an article about how COVID has affected AT for the military. Sounds simple enough? Except that it needs to be submitted
in September to be published in December. Given the current situation, who knows where we’ll be then!
So instead I’ve opted to review the journey we’ve come on and outline our considerations for the 20/21
winter season.
Just like many others, Adventurous Training Group (Army) (ATG(A)) completely closed its doors to students in March. An unprecedented move, one which even Foot and Mouth didn’t see us take. Almost immediately our staff began working from home and our attention turned to ensuring we could re-open as soon as the MOD and Govt regulations allowed.
The first task was to identify what we could deliver. Over several Zoom meetings we worked through the syllabi of all 68 courses, looking at every Training Objective and categorising them as either Green, Amber or Red. Green TOs could be delivered as normal in a COVID environment. Amber required the training to be adapted, whilst red would require us to amend the training to such an extent that we could no longer guarantee that the course output was the same. This process gave us a clear view of which courses we could re-start with minimal disruption, and which aspects needed to be held at risk by our CoC.
During this period a considerable amount of work was also put in to ensure that our infrastructure was COVID secure. Our
Wings developed one-way systems, new ways of issuing and quarantining kit, and securing land clearance whilst our G4 teams focussed on the logistics of moving students around in our minibuses, feeding and accommodating students safely and keeping the permanent staff safe. The smell of alcohol gel now persists in the corridors of HQ JSMTC...
As the Govt guidance eased and our training areas across the country reopened for everyone, we were able to put our plan into play and open our doors to some long-term students, and eventuallynormalcoursesatalowlevel, with lower ratios.
With our summer activities being phased out our attention is now focused on the upcoming winter season. Big decisions need to be made. Quar- antining policies are in place for Norway and Austria and as I’m
sure those of you who have attended courses in Ballachu-
lish will attest to, our Scottish Wing isn’t exactly designed around social distancing. Our Wings are spread across the Devolved Administrations,
who each have different and evolving COVID guidance, and potentially localised lockdowns. Our Bavarian Wing is within the EU
and from 1 January 2021 we’ll no longer be in the single market or customs union. We’re unsure what impact leaving without a deal will have.
This may sound pessimistic, but optimis- tically we’re back out in the hills and on the water, looking at delivering in different locations, booking additional accommo- dation and working with industry partners such as Mountain Training to establish best practice.
Will everyone who applies for a course get a space this winter? Probably not, but we’regoingtoworkhardtoensurethat we can get as many people as we safely can onto a course.
8 / ARMY MOUNTAINEER