Posted on 09/29/2016 2:47:46 PM PDT by Drew68
WASHINGTON (NNS) -- Following the completion of its review earlier this year, the Navy announced Sept. 29, it will modernize all rating titles for Sailors with the establishment of a new classification system that will move towards occupational specialty codes similar to how the other services categorize skill sets.
"In modernizing our enlisted rating system we are not only giving our Sailors increased opportunities within the Navy, such as a higher level of flexibility in training and detailing, but also increasing their opportunities when they transition out of the service. In aligning the descriptions of the work our Sailors do with their counterparts in the civilian world, we more closely reflect the nation we protect while also making it easier for our Sailors to obtain the credentials they'll need to be successful in the private sector," said Secretary of the Navy, Ray Mabus.
Chief of Personnel Vice Adm. Robert Burke emphasized, "We believe that opening enlisted career paths will enhance our ability to optimize talent in our enlisted workforce. This change is the first step of a multi-phased approach to help us do just that."
Former Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy Michael Stevens led the review earlier this year for the Secretary of the Navy on behalf of Chief of Naval Operations, Adm. John Richardson.
"We are all Sailors and changing our rating titles does not affect that," said current Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy, Steven S. Giordano, who relieved Stevens Sept. 2. "While we certainly understand that this represents a significant cultural shift for the Navy and will take time to become fully adapted throughout the Fleet, this is about giving Sailors more choice and flexibility and ultimately providing the Navy opportunities to get the right Sailors with the right training and experience in the right billets."
Giordano described how this change will work.
"Sailors would no longer be called, 'yeoman second class' or YN2, for example," he said. "Instead they will be 'second class petty officer, or 'petty officer.' However, Sailors' rates will not change: an E-7 will remain a Chief Petty Officer and an E-3 will remain a seaman. Additionally, there will no longer be a distinction between 'airman, fireman and seaman.'"
This change will also allow the Navy to more accurately identify Sailors' skills by creating "Navy Occupational Specialty" (NOS) codes that allow greater assignment flexibility for Sailors throughout their career and will be matched with similar civilian occupations to enable the Navy to identify credentials and certifications recognized and valued within the civilian workforce.
For example, a petty officer who used to be identified as a corpsman will now have a NOS matched as a medical technician. Medical technician better reflects the work and responsibilities of someone in that position and is better aligned with the civilian medical profession.
Sailors will be able to hold more than one NOS, which will give them a broader range of professional experience and expertise and will be grouped under career fields that will enable flexibility to move between occupational specialties within the fields and will be tied to training and qualifications.
As the Navy transforms its training to a mobile, modular and more frequent system called Ready Relevant Learning, combined with recent creation of the Billet-Based Distribution system that provides a more comprehensive picture of billet requirements fleetwide, this enlisted rating modernization plan will provide the ability to much more closely track a Sailor's training and professional development and match it to billets.
Going forward, this transformation will occur in phases over a multi-year period.
A working group was formed in July to identify personnel policies, management programs and information technology systems that may require modifications over the years and months ahead--including changes to recruiting, detailing, advancements, training and personnel and pay processes.
Any follow-on changes that are made will proceed in a deliberate process that will enable transitions to occur seamlessly and transparently. Fleet involvement and feedback will be solicited during each phase of the transformation and we will carefully consider all aspects of enlisted force management as we move forward.
The chief of naval personnel/N1 will lead the Navy's implementation efforts.
Effective immediately, sailors are "First Class Petty Officer Jones", or "Petty Officer Second Class Smith" or simply, "Petty Officer Jackson"
All non-rated E-3 and below will be referred to as "Seaman last name."
Naval enlisted ratings have been around since the Continental Navy. As of today, they are history.
This AO1(AW/SW) is more than a little bit sad.
Obunga would be deeply saddened.
Jackasses, not everything works better when "corporatized".
Ping
If it helps transitioning to civilian work by certifying the level of specific education and experience acquired in the Navy, then it’s good.
To be fair, I'm not entirely opposed to the logic behind this decision. The argument is that replacing ratings with job codes will allow for a lot more flexibility to move between occupations.
Truth is, the Navy is a much different entity with different requirements than the Navy of our grandfathers. Most likely gone are the days of massive sea battles between huge warships each manned with hundreds if not thousands of sailors. Today's navy needs to be flexible enough to augment land forces. The ships are getting smaller and fewer. Warplanes are increasingly piloted by land-based operators playing a video game in an air-conditioned office. By this time next year, we'll all be wearing green cammies and look not much different from soldiers.
Still, it is not without sadness to see my beloved rating slip into history.
>>This AO1(AW/SW) is more than a little bit sad.
So is this EM1(SS). The Navy treats E-1 through E-6 like crap. One of the small joys of Navy life is the constant rivalries between the ratings. If they are going to drop the ratings, then get rid of the clunky “Petty Officer” title as well. Just adopt Army or Marine Corps ranks so people can be addressed by their rank and its more distinctive than “Petty Officer’, which on a submarine is a title that 2/3 of the crew has.
I truly hate what America has become.
Not so sure - there is a level of expertise which came with the ratings as personnel progressed through the ranks - this is going to be like having an electrical engineer job hop into a mechanical engineer or petri-engineer or aero space engineer position. Or having a plumber act as an electrician. or a pascal programmer jumping into html or Java.
There is a reason that A schools existed for the ratings and that you could trust a consistent level of training and background. Seamen would work a short time in a few rates to test them out if they weren’t sure and different departments would attempt to bring personnel onboard at times. Each had a different bonus structure to get people in depending on the need. Personnelmen are going to have a much harder time of it now because they will need to look at the detailed skill set instead of just the rating to see if the command needs are being met.
I don’t see this as a good thing at all.
The missions just aren't the same anymore. Ratings trapped sailors into very narrow job specialties. Today's navy requires flexibility.
I see no real change, as it was your NEC that got you assigned to a given billet.
Obama getting his last pound of flesh, anything to disrupt decorum and long honored polices that gave us unmatched success on the high seas.
Is there anything he hasn’t fixed (f-—— up) yet?
>>The argument is that replacing ratings with job codes will allow for a lot more flexibility to move between occupations.
It’s a dumb argument motivated by a desire to do away with ratings since so many of them have the word “man” or “mate” in them. Even with ratings, enlisted people can move between jobs as needed on a ship. That’s the actual reason for the SS, SW, AW qualifications. Once I had my dolphins, I could jump on the planes and drive the boat, help fire a torpedo, do damage control in any compartment, and I could perform all the functions of my rating. The SW and AW folks can probably do something similar.
I'm really curious to see what this will do to advancement quotas, particularly for Chief.
Yes, we can. It's just a matter of earning qualifications. However, we are limited in advancement opportunities by the available quotes for our specific rates.
>>I’m really curious to see what this will do to advancement quotas, particularly for Chief.
I wonder about that too. Its probably the end of Chiefs in the engineering spaces. The quotas will all go to the “visible” people who get all the NAMs.
I see no reason that A schools should be affected by this. My understanding is that this addresses specialization training, ie C school level stuff and above. The basics of Navy life are still universally required, and there’s no way A level training differentiates enough to be given its own specialized civilian-transferable description. I could be wrong, of course, but that’s my understanding.
Preparing for Transgenders ?
>>However, we are limited in advancement opportunities by the available quotes for our specific rates.
So, when everyone is a generic PO and has some 3 character alpha-numeric MOS, how will the quotas change? I used to be an EM with 2 NECs, but my quota was just based on being an EM. This will tighten the quotas even more and its not like you will just decide one day to switch to a new MOS because the promotion opportunities are better over there.
If they don’t need any PO1 30Bs and you are a PO2 30B, then you are stuck—more stuck than you were when you competed against your whole rating. It’s only a benefit for people like the Nuc ET, who never works in his rating and finds the rating exam to be difficult since reactor operations aren’t on it.
Every one a petty officer, and make sure each gets a participation ribbon to wear with their maternity uniforms.
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