IV. Description of Individual Training and Education
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It is important to define at the outset what is meant by IT&E and differentiate between this type of training, which is targeted at individuals, and what is known as collective training, which is not part of this audit. We will revisit this issue in the "Audit scope" section. The definitions for these types of training are as follows:
"Individual training and education include training activities for individual members of the CF aimed at providing the skills, knowledge and attitudes required to perform the assigned duties or with regard to which information may be correctly interpreted and soundly judged."
"Collective training involves training, excluding IT&E, designed to prepare groups, units and other components to perform military duties according to set standards. Collective training includes the learning of procedures and the practical application of doctrines, plans and procedures in order to acquire and maintain tactical, operational and strategic capabilities."2
Individual training prepares military personnel to perform at their rank or in one of the military fields, whereas collective training prepares these individuals to operate in a group or unit in a deployment situation. Collective training includes training on ships involved in rescue exercises or simulations of evacuation exercises in the event of an alert or fire in a work environment.
IT&E is provided throughout the CF, costing approximately $1.6 billion a year, including military personnel salaries. The CF is divided into four commands: Navy, Army, Air Force and the Chief of Military Personnel (CMP). Each command represents a distinctive service. The CF includes close to 68,000 members of which half are in the Land Force. Francophones make up 27.6% of the CF. There are also some 40,000 reservists with a mandate to support and reinforce our deployed forces.
As for facilities that provide IT&E, there are more than 42 national training establishments spread throughout Canada. The CF provides about 1,500 courses per year across the three forces and the CMP Command, which has designated the Canadian Defence Academy (CDA) as its training authority. Training courses are generally classified as either basic courses leading to the required accreditations for assignment to any unit, or specialized or more advanced courses that are provided throughout a soldier’s career to enable him or her to develop skills and take on more specialized functions. A little less than 40,000 trainees take courses every year.
Among the CF units that focus on training is the CDA, located in Kingston, Ontario. One of its missions is "[t]o lead Canadian Forces professional development, uphold the profession of arms and champion lifelong learning to enable operational success."3 The CDA defines itself as a coordinator of individual training and education, with more than 4,000 members. The CDA exercises the role of IT&E functional authority on behalf of the CMP for all of the training provided in the CF, and operates 10 schools located in Kingston, Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Borden, Gatineau and Toronto. The CDA is specifically responsible for training common to the three forces, as well as the Canadian Forces Language School, the Royal Military College of Canada, the Canadian Forces College, the Professional Development Centre and the Canadian Forces Support Training Group.
It should also be noted that the CF has various policies, directives and Defence Administrative Orders on official languages and on the IT&E system. We paid particular attention to these documents and focused our attention on language of training in the official language of choice and on access to second-language training. Most of these documents are referenced in this report and many are in the process of being revised. We took such revisions into account during the audit.
Notes
2 Derived from the DAOD 5031-2 and 8015-0.
3 Canadian Defence Academy presentation to the Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages, March 2009.
