Chi Onwurah – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chi Onwurah on 2015-02-12.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what guidance his Department provides to its managers on how many days training should be made available to staff.

Anna Soubry

The Ministry of Defence (MOD) is committed to helping all employees realise their full potential. This is why all civilian staff are strongly encouraged to take up the offer of completing five days training each year. I am pleased to report that the Department is investing an additional £10 million to develop the skills of our civilian personnel.

The MOD does not hold information centrally on the average number of days training of full-time equivalent staff. Some data is available from Civil Service Learning for the period July 2012 – June 2013. This showed that the average number of days training of full-time equivalent staff via Civil Service Learning was 1.3 days per head.

However, this is not a true indication of the total number of days training staff have undertaken, as staff may receive training through a variety of other measures. The Defence Academy undertakes training and development which is specific to Defence, including command and staff courses, languages, acquisition and technology training for military and civilian personnel. It also has a considerable range of leadership, management, project management and commercial training which is specific to Defence.

The Defence Learning Portal hosts e-learning including a wide range of military and technical training, and mandatory training for civilian and military personnel. This is complemented by a range of learning and development opportunities available to predominately civilian staff, through Civil Service Learning.

There is also a range of other activities such as coaching, mentoring, shadowing and 360 degree feedback which count towards five training days a year, but may not be recorded officially.