Changes coming to 315th Airlift Wing UTA schedule, structure

  • Published
  • By Jason Dethier
  • 315 Airlift Wing Process Manager

The 315th Airlift Wing recently announced a new Unit Training Assembly schedule and structure set for implementation beginning January 2022.

The new schedule and structure is part of an Air Force Reserve Command effort to increase readiness and provide more time for Airmen to focus on their Air Force Specialty Code training.

The new UTA structure came after the 315th Airlift Wing was selected in late 2021 as a test unit and tasked to reimagine the traditional UTA weekend in a way which would better focus on ASFC training events.

According to AFRC data, the average time an Airman spent on tasks related to his or her functional area was just five of the 16 hours of a regularly scheduled UTA. Command leadership believed this was too low to adequately prepare Citizen Airmen for the future challenges presented by a changing global security environment.  The 315 AW was tasked to develop and implement a plan which would focus energies on reprioritizing AFSC specific training during a UTA.

In response to this challenge, the wing organized a rapid improvement event with the overall goal of increasing time available for Airmen to perform AFSC related activities from the current average of five hours per UTA weekend.  The team was comprised of cross-functional members from around the wing including operations, maintenance, medical, logistics readiness, wing training, inspections and readiness training.

To best tackle the problem, the team first had to understand the current state of the UTA, and so they created a model of a typical 315 AW drill weekend to show how the 16 hours were spent and also identify bottlenecks, wastes and inefficiencies within the current system. Upon doing this, the team realized a key issue was UTA time for AFSC related work suffered from being fragmented throughout the day and constantly interrupted by non-AFSC related tasks.  Each time one of these interruptions occurred, time was wasted as Airmen switched from their functional tasks to the other work.

With this root cause firmly in mind, the team brainstormed ways to preserve and prioritize ASFC related training activities on a UTA weekend. After considering several ideas to mitigate the constant switching between tasks, the team settled on a course of action comprised of a new daily UTA restructure, as well as a modified UTA calendar.

The restructured UTA will allow units to schedule AFSC proficiency tasks into a single block of time first thing on each UTA day by moving any event not related to an Airman’s core job to a fixed time in the afternoon on training days. For example: Physical Health Assessments, drug reduction urinalysis, and even military ceremonies or distinguished visitor visits will be moved to scheduled times in the afternoon. Meaning, from sign-in to lunch the priority is for units to focus solely on operating in their functional specialty.

Additionally, units will be required to coordinate an annual AFSC training schedule in advance with the wing. The schedules will work to assist in reducing redundancy of events, increase predictability for Reservists, and offer accountability to complete the scheduled tasks or report to the wing why it was not completed.

The newly published 315 AW training calendar for fiscal year 2022 can be found on the 315 AW app and website. The new calendar is comprised of three unique UTA structures: a Remote one-day UTA, a three-day Mega UTA, and the traditional two-day UTA. The remote UTA borrows heavily from lessons learned during COVID telework and will be used to complete annual online training or other events which are not necessary to be performed in-person. The first remote UTA is scheduled for April 2022. Additional information on this, and other aspects of the new UTA structure will be coming through your unit leadership in the following months.

UTA ScheduleUse the Wing App UTA Schedule

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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