Surface Warfare Officer School Unit (SWOSU) Great Lakes hosted a workshop to review and update the Navy's Occupational Standards (OCCSTDS) for the Electricians Mate (EM) rate, March 20-22.

In addition to SWOSU Great Lakes Staff, personnel from Littoral Combat Ship Squadron 1 (LCSRON-1), Southwest Regional Maintenance Center (SWRMC), Mid-Atlantic Regional Maintenance Center (MARMC), Recruit Training Command (RTC), Training Support Center (TSC), USS George H.W. Bush and Navy Manpower Analysis Center (NAVMAC) were present to address the Navy's minimum requirement and skills for EMs which was last updated in 2010.

"This is very important work," said Chief Electricians Mate Michael Williams, instructor at SWOSU Great Lakes. "The occupational standards actually form the foundation for all the manpower, training, advancement, career planning for the EM rating. So, it's essential that we get the standards right. To do so we have brought in the right folks to get the job done."

Williams said that the process is very important to him and the EM rating. The people in the room accomplishing the task cumulatively have years and years of experience. They have different platforms, Navy Enlisted Classifications, backgrounds and viewpoints.
The goal for the workshop is to update the EM OCCSTDS to define, translate and classify the knowledge skills and abilities and building and revising training curriculum. This plays a huge factor in advancement and career planning.

The current planned changes will have an effect on rating exams and the training requirements, and roles and responsibilities of each ranking level.

Participants are updating the rates functional areas such as electrical installation, auxiliary electrical equipment, power distribution, small crafts, elevators and conveyors, lifting equipment, motors and generators, and technical administrative work.

"I want to empathize the criticality of this, and applaud the support we got from SWOSU in getting the right folks in the room to ensure that these are as verified as possible and represent the work of the rating," said Jill Gentile, industrial/organizational psychologist at NAVMAC Occupational Classification Division. The product produced here will be used for training and advancement purposes. Each task is written to the minimum paygrade when it is first required, so getting those paygrades and the skill progression across the ranks valid and verified is critical."

In looking at each functional area tasks will be created for each rank making sure that they are written at the right paygrade for today.

"Equipment has changed along with work requirement since the 2010 OCCSTDS," Williams said. "For example we didn't have any E-7 tasks in the OCCSTDS in the 2010 write-up. So, the OCCSTDS identified that an E-7 didn't do anything. We all know that is untrue, it was just not documented. Now we added in for E-7 the switchboards, load centers and overall electrical safety for the ship."

Once the work is completed it will eventually be published in the Navy Personnel (NAVPERS) manual housed by Navy Manpower Analysis Center (NAVMAC) on the Navy Personnel Command website.

Before it is published the document will go up to the resource sponsor where the sponsor can subtask it out to some of the Type Commands who can integrate and balance representation from each of the constituent Navy's information dominance corps components. Once that is complete the resource sponsor is essentially responsible for approving the changes.

"It was a privilege to be able to host the EM OCCSTDS event and the Fleet support from LCSRON-1, MARMC, SWRMC, USS George H. W. Bush, RTC and TSC was phenomenal," said Cmdr. Terrance Patterson, commanding officer of SWOSU Great Lakes. "A great opportunity to capitalize on our Fleet's talent in reevaluating the Electrician's Mate rating to update standards to match our current and future work as we move towards a 335 ship Navy."


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