Weekend was great and back to work soon. So some after-thoughts after the recent 2-weeks reservist stint. I finally had a SAR21 technical handling course as well as a range shoot using the electronic and real life bullets. Love the scope on that thing, little need for calibration and adjustments and the fact that the technical handling course was completed within 30mins. I could strip and assemble the weapon under a minute in total.
The technical handling course was conducted by a Warrant Officer who was observed to be very dedicated and passionate about teaching us reservists, whom many can be seen to be simply "bo chup" otherwise known as I-don't-give-a-shit attitude. Seriously, quite often we give less thought about the training we receive and even much less thought when the trainer tells you about his 31 years of dedicated career in the force. From an uncompleted secondary school education to signing on the army and give it over 30 years of your life, you wonder what would this Warrant Officer do if he was asked to go? Recently with the streamlined establishment of several appointments and job scopes, we have heard of many of such long-serving soldiers being asked to leave army. And I wonder what is life after army for them, what can they do, what holds for them? Security guards? Did the army think about it for them, with plans on integrating back with the society like the Yellow Ribbon project with the Prison Services? Ask any employer of any industry what useful role can a 40-50 year old Army Warrant Officer do to stay employed in their company?
The Warrant Officer told us he was taking courses on how to conduct lectures, trainer-related etc. You can see how hard he tried to avoid using slides to walk through certain courses, and try to engage us by asking lots of questions. It was all in good effort but you have to admit that it was far from perfect and professional as he work his craft in an uncompetitive environment. I am not sure this might be an after-Army kind of work he can do. Not especially on subjects unrelated to Army training, what sort of useful experiences can he share for courses like "Creative Thinking" or "Supply Chain Management"?
We heard from the CO that his Major title in a technical role such as his will soon be referred to as Senior Engineer. This came to a shock to me, as I pondered why the change? Another way of helping them integrate into the private workforce? Seriously when you send in your resume to the HR, the hiring company will question the candidate on the roles he played in the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF)- as an organisation that doesn't really train you to be a Senior Engineer having any useful technical knowledge such as to analyse a faulty laptop or operate a Chemical Mechanical Polishing tool in the factory. So what can a Senior Engineer being trained in SAF do, which will justify a interview call from the private sector requiring unique expertise?
Lots more to ponder upon as the local military tries harder to move towards a 3G Army force which can contribute in society after their shelf live have exceeded; and seriously productivity advise should not come from the men in green who have difficulty finding work for an aging workforce within, yet having the need to have multitudes of private contractors coming to do a myriad spread of Military-support work functions.
Outsourcing is often an easy way out for companies trying to reduce cost, and similarly to how our Singapore government tweak their GDP numbers through massively importing foreigners in the past 5 years. The numbers look good but quite often the culture will soon be rotten and require further refinements to appease the growing dissent from the indigenous and more often than not - productivity decreases like an expected cause and effect.
An example of a captured audience from a lecture, interesting topic by the way.
