Page 21 - RAPTC Year of 2019

After a swift 5-month trawl from HQ ITG at Army HQ to support the GCC PES efforts and vowing never to return I write this year from my assignment as the SO2 PES on a 2-year E2 posting at Army HQ as part of the Prof Dev PES Research Team - it’s funny how sometimes your words can come back to haunt you! By the time this goes to print I will have been part of the team for approximately 15 months and fully conversant with everything Andover – and trust me there’s a lot to get conversant with!
My new assignment as part of the wider DPers, Professional Development Branch has proved to be a busy, challenging and rewarding appointment to date that has seen much development in the Non-GCC PES Sphere. By now we will all be aware of what the new PES testing will look like and the standards associated with those Non-GCC Cap badged personnel.
The first thing that struck me on arrival at Army HQ was the rigour and detail that goes in to all projects undertaken within the DPers domain. This is no truer than the detail that underpins the current Non-GCC PES development. PES follows a NATO recognised development process (Fig 1) that sees Scientific rigour and Military judgement underpin the rationale behind the new PES providing a framework of representative military tasks and role specific tasks that will test all the components of fitness and cover all the relevant Primary Physical Actions associated with non-GCC specific employment role.
Physical Employment Standards (PES) are role-related physical fitness tests, used to measure the physical capability of personnel to perform their job role. PES relate to employment not deployment and define the minimum physical requirements to complete the most physically demanding role.
“Personnel must be able to perform their job-role anywhere” (Acknowledging mandated environmental restrictions).
Job Task Analysis
Maj (MAA) P Saunders RAPTC
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SO2 PHYSICAL EMPLOYMENT STANDARDS (PES)
Fig 2 provides an overview of the process undertaken by Army HQ and the University of Chichester that has developed the new Non-GCC PES.
PES reflect a “reasonable worst-case scenario” for each role, this is based on subjective military judgement, and is not scientifically evidenced. PES balances the competing demands to maximise physical capability and minimise risk of injury, whilst remaining achievable by the workforce when supported by appropriate physical development training programme (APTS).
The new non-GCC PES better reflects the demands placed on out SP by ensuring that they are fit for their job role in any given environment – PES mitigates against MSKI and ensures our soldiers train in a holistic manner that will help to enable a higher degree of through-life fitness and wellbeing leading to heathier, more prepared individuals who can better function in any given situation or environment.
Employment at E2 within Army HQ as part of the DPers, Professional Development Team has been both challenging and rewarding. The opportunity to work in a high tempo 4* environment with a high calibre, multi cap badged, multi- faceted workforce has been both eye opening and a learning curve; I will leave a better-rounded Officer if not a little more tired with a few more grey hairs!
PES Non-GCC Job Tasks
PES Development Process