NAVY NEWS, JULY 2007 23
Baby Stokers at HMS Sultan are taking their ship to sea. The training of the new generation of ETMEs has ditched the ‘learn and bin’ classroom approach in favour of
hands-on work in real engines in realistic environments, all backed up by the latest in computer-based training nestled in a package called the Buzzing Hub.
At the hub of change
IN THE not too distant past,
training through a dedicated teach-
trainee Stokers learnt their
ing package called the Buzzing
trade sat in Victorian-style
Hub.
classrooms, while a senior
Now there are realistic environ-
ments full of pipes and electrical
rate with a long stick pointed
cables for the trainees to trace
out the parts of a engine and and mend, and time among the
taught them lists of names, engines of the Navy’s ships.
with nothing to look forward
Now there is a divisional struc-
to but another 18 weeks of
ture that better reflects life on
‘death by powerpoint’.
ship.
And now the Fleet is sending
Now the ETMEs of HMS
back messages of thanks for the
Sultan clamber around amid the
level of confidence and ability of
grease and grime of real engines,
the Engineering Technicians arriv-
spanner in hand, soaking them-
ing on ship.
selves with water, dropping screws
And now the loss rate from the
through the deckplates into the
ETME course at Sultan has been
Spaghetti Junction of pipes below.
cut by over two-thirds.
Or they sit in front of flat-panel
It’s a solid result for the school’s
monitors as 3D graphics spin and
newest incarnation of stokers.
chart the flow of liquid through
This year 250 general serv-
the different valves of the engi-
ice and 80 submariners will
neer’s world.
pass through the ET initial
And in a year’s time, they’ll be
career course at Sultan’s Marine
picking up their handheld com-
Engineering School.
puters to look up the finer details
The trainees are taken through
of engine-room etiquette or play
a structured 18-week programme
back the podcasts of their instruc-
which takes them from their indi-
tor’s words.
vidual computer-screens in the
“Technology is moving at a
classroom to real engines on the
pace which is almost unstoppable.
shopfloor, cabin scenarios and out
We know that the young use those
on ship, then back to the comput-
technologies – and we weren’t,”
ers to reinforce the practical.
said Capt Jonathan Woodcock, the
It’s a fact of the modern world
head of the Royal Navy’s School
that many of the trainee engi-
of Marine Engineering at HMS
neers have never done any practi-
Sultan.
cal engineering, never taken an
“If we failed to meet their
engine apart. But they can find
expectations, they would
their way around the labyrinth of
not see the Navy as some-
the internet with deft fingers.
thing new, modern and
The transformation of train-
exciting. In general, those
ing at HMS Sultan now better
who chose to join the Navy
meets their needs and expecta-
rather than go to college
tions, balancing the tools they
did so because they didn’t
have used every day – the mouse
● ETME(SM) Christopher Jelley tracing systems in the gear room of HMS Bristol Picture: LA(Phot) Luis Holden
expect to spend days and
and the computer – with the tools
It’s the first thing I tell them – ‘You Despite the testing nature of “I was reading today about the
days stuck in a classroom.”
with which they have had sporadic
Coulter says with a grin: “Fifteen
contact – the spanner and the
minutes in here are better than
are a team. Work together.’” the final day of consolidation, the man-below system when I realised
Two years ago when the captain
screwdriver.
hours in the classroom.”
Bristol and her aged steamroom trainee engineers are very upbeat that we’d done that on ship on
first arrived at the engineering
The Buzzing Hub is available
CPOET(ME) ‘Brum’
may not seem the exact match about their futures and the skills Bristol.”
school, instructors and trainees
on the 300 computers scattered
Brumfield, the self-styled Head
for the Navy’s upcoming fleet of they’ve gained at Sultan. Most of the trainees had spent
were trapped in a classroom. But
through the technical site of HMS
Diesel Weasel or in his official
future destroyers and carriers. ETME Thelma Mandebvu said: the previous evening huddled
there was a strong feeling among
Sultan, and work is in hand to
role an instructor at Sultan, runs
But Brum shrugs, “Yes, this is a “I think it’s amazing how you around the computers of the
his staff that things needed to
create a wireless network so that
through the practical elements of
steamroom, they’ll never go down acquire so much knowledge over Buzzing Hub going over the work
change.
trainees can pick up the training
valves in the workshop on board
a working one like this in the Fleet.
18 weeks of training. I’ve enjoyed of the last 18 weeks.
And the captain called together
package on their own laptops back
HMS Bristol then takes them
But it’s got the same pipes, lumps
it because it has been challenging Groups had come together
a small team, led by Lt Sven
in the accomodation.
down in the bowels of the old ship
and bumps. And that’s what they
mentally. We get experience both with individuals supporting each
Johansen and WO1 Darby Allen,
ETME John Enninful said: “I
to work on the reality.
need to know.”
ways, both practical and theory. other according to their strengths,
to make sure that the training at
find it very very useful because if
And it is reality as water pours
“In the electrical training area,
“I find the Buzzing Hub fasci- whether bookworm or greasemon-
his school better fulfilled the needs
you get lost during the instruction
from a valve that hasn’t been
things like changing fuses – well,
nating. It’s much easier to prepare key.
of the Fleet and better matched
here you can go away and go over
properly set.
it’s not difficult but there is a proc-
for an exam using that. And much Let’s leave the last word to
the expectations of the 16-34 year
it again on the Hub.” He said: “They enjoy this side
ess,” said Capt Woodcock.
more motivating than reading ETME Shane Hamilton – “We’re
olds under his wing.
“We’ve gone into a new world,” of it and they get bogged down
“In a classroom you can
from a book. a family. We help each other.”
The team worked with experts said ETME Anthony Davies, “but with the theory. But here they are
pass an exam with 75 per
from the Department for Education the computer-based training has doing what they want to do.
cent. But still kill yourself
and Skills and from Flagship made it easier. It’s good that they “It’s the best way I ever learnt,
on board ship. But if you do
to restructure the approach to simplify it so well.” to learn from your own mistakes is
it practically, you repeat the
training with the introduction of The training at Sultan is split how you remember.”
process and in time it be-
the new Engineering Technician some 60:40 between the practical He added: “We’ve got young
comes instinctive.”
branch. and the classroom now, but the guys who’ve come straight out of
Eighteen months ago there team at Sultan are determined to school with A-level physics. But he
Within Faraday Block, the cen-
wasn’t a single computer with push that even further in favour of hasn’t got a Scooby. And you’ve
tre of the electrical training, after
internet-access available for the the hands-on work. got the guy who’s been using a
suitable groundwork in the class-
trainees. As trainee submariners clamber spanner for years but hasn’t got an
rooms ETMEs move between ten
Now there are 300 web- through the piperoom of HMS exam to his name.
stances of scenario-based training,
enabled computers offering Bristol, ETME(SM) Stephen “They all learn off their mates.
from galley to officer’s cabin, from
exterior lighting to ship’s boats
● ETME John Enninful fi xes a defect on a fresh-water pump in Watt Hangar in HMS Sultan
engines.
ETME Chris Somers is over
half way through the 18-week
course, clutching the vital electri-
cal test equipment in his hand
– “I enjoy it a hundred times
more in here than being sent into
a classroom. It keeps your mind
ticking.”
One of the main focuses of
the work at Sultan has been to
make sure that the up-and-coming
Stokers have a solid understand-
ing of Naval life on board ship.
Killicks, POs and Chiefs are
all part of their daily life with the
divisional structure and the sup-
port that it offers to trainees and
their families stressed.
Time on board stone frigate
Sultan and ship Bristol also estab-
lishes the niceties of Naval life,
even down to the minor details of
flip-flops on board ship.
“Bristol is not a modern ship,”
said Capt Woodcock. “It’s not a
modern Type 45 – I’d love it to
be, but it’s not going to happen.
But Bristol’s got lots of the funda-
mentals – hatches, bilges, pumps
and pipes.
“They live on board and that
way we get across the fundamen-
tals of what life is like on ship.”
All the work of the previous 18
weeks is bundled up into the final
trial of consolidation, where the
trainees are taken from station to
station and told “Right, you show
me how this works.”
Picture: LA(Phot) Judy Hurst
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