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Reservists Captain Richard Nolan (left) and Captain Clayton Ereaut, both originally from Newfoundland, listen to the owner of a pomegranate tree nursery in Afghanistan as Civil-Military Cooperation team members of the Kandahar Provincial Reconstruction Team, 1 April 2007.

DND photo AR2007-A035-0044 by Sergeant Craig Fiander

Reservists Captain Richard Nolan (left) and Captain Clayton Ereaut, both originally from Newfoundland, listen to the owner of a pomegranate tree nursery in Afghanistan as Civil-Military Cooperation team members of the Kandahar Provincial Reconstruction Team, 1 April 2007.

The PLQ Mod 6 Conundrum: How the Army Punishes Reservists for Civilian Achievement

by Dan Doran

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The Issue

In this short article, I would like to address the issue of Primary Reserve non-commissioned member (NCM) training in the Canadian Army, in particular, the six-week Module 6 portion of the Primary Leadership Qualification (PLQ) required for the appointment to the rank of master corporal. This course is currently one of the most significant stumbling blocks to career progression among part-time soldiers, mainly due to the length of the course, which translates to the period of time a reservist must take out of his civilian career when an opportunity to attend the course occurs.

Background

The typical reservist’s career begins in high school when the member is around the age of eighteen. The member commits his/her summers and weekends to the unit throughout the remainder of  high school, and continues this commitment throughout college or university. The reservist will typically complete Basic Military Qualification courses (BMQ – Parts 1 and 2), Qualification Level 3 (QL 3), and QL 4, in addition to a complimentary course or qualification, such as driver, to round out the first four-to-five years of their careers. At this point, the member has generally completed schooling and has joined the civilian work force at an entry-level position. This typically translates to very little vacation time (usually less than three weeks), and considerable work hours.1 These work conditions are the result of the member being at the bottom rung of an organization, and by virtue of trying to establish themselves in a new profession. The member may also have a spouse at this point, with children either on the way, or expected in the foreseeable future.

Despite these hurdles, most members who are sufficiently motivated will nonetheless take the time to continue their military career development through the distance learning portion of the PLQ (Modules 1 to 5), in addition to participating in evening and weekend training at the unit. Once the member has completed these modules, the problem in question arises: how to complete Module 6? This module consists of an uninterrupted six-week training session held away from the home unit. The length of the session makes it impossible for a reservist to complete it without using all his available vacation time, in addition to the leave without pay that employers are obliged to give reservists in certain provinces, such as Quebec.2  For the vast majority of new employees who are starting out in the professional work force as engineers, business managers, or as other professionals or entrepreneurs, this level of commitment is clearly unrealistic.

I speak from experience as an individual who has been a new employee in the civilian work force for the past two years. Asking for this amount of time off prior to being firmly established in one’s place of work puts the member in a tenuous position at best, despite any legislation that may support time off for military service. In addition, the provincial regulations that allow for training leave require an individual to have been employed by a given company for a minimum of 12 months. With the average civilian in North America changing his place of work on average every 4.4 years,3 this situation becomes a never-ending cycle for a given member that eventually leads to his release from the Canadian Forces. In my case, I was fortunate enough to arrive at my reserve unit fully trained to my present rank, and was not required to make the enormous sacrifices demanded of other members to advance. Unfortunately, the Primary Reserve has come to rely upon ex-Regular Force or Class B reservists to fill its senior ranks, since it has become nearly impossible for the organization to ‘self-generate’ its own senior staff, due to the overly lengthy training periods documented herein.

Reconnaissance patrol members from Primary Leadership Qualification (PLQ) [Land] Module 6 disembark from a 12 Wing Sea King helicopter during Exercise Final Thrust, 25 November 2008.

DND photo AX2008-0254 by Sergeant Todd Berry

Reconnaissance patrol members from Primary Leadership Qualification (PLQ) [Land] Module 6 disembark from a 12 Wing Sea King helicopter during Exercise Final Thrust, 25 November 2008.

 

Wait! There’s More

Reading between the lines of the foregoing statements, one can conclude that the reserve training structure is built in a manner that punishes professional success in the civilian word, which, in turn, leads to many future captains of industry leaving the reserves as corporals or untrained second lieutenants, due to the system not being able to tailor a training schedule that meets their needs. The system remains mired in a rigid and inflexible regular force structure that simply does not work for the industrious reservist. This systemic syndrome in the reserves bleeds it of its best potential leaders, and it is a large contributing factor to the difficulty the reserves presently have in retaining and developing its own staff.

As a military officer or senior NCO, one must ask oneself if these members can be blamed for leaving. I do not think I would want to be part of an organization that places impossible demands upon my time in order to ascend beyond the position of a section member or an assistant training officer when I lead other professionals daily in my civilian life, and have professional and personal demands on my time that are paramount to my primary source of income and the welfare of my family.

There is a misconception by Regular Force members as to what defines the Primary Reserve as an organization. We must not forget that while reservists have done amazing work supporting the war in Afghanistan over the past decade,4 the Regular Force is only ‘seeing the tip of the iceberg’ when it comes to the Primary Reserve as a whole in these young men and women with whom they deploy and serve. For every 23-year-old reservist corporal that has decided to take a year off from school to serve his country overseas, there is a 33-year-old corporal who did the same thing a decade earlier and is now an engineer team leader with an established private firm, who is ‘reaching the end of his/her rope’ with the reserves because they want to do more training at the armoury, but are constrained by rank and available time to commit to lengthy military career training held in residency format. These are the silent majority in the Primary Reserve that fade away into civilian society because the army consistently and systematically fails to recognize their present value and future potential.

It should also be mentioned that for many, attending these courses represents a significant financial loss. Many senior corporals who work in high-paying civilian jobs earn in excess of $90,000 per year. Taking six weeks off from work, in most cases unpaid, can prove to be yet another impossible obstacle to overcome. How many Regular Force majors would accept a 60 percent pay cut to spend six weeks in the field on training that will in no way benefit their full-time career?

Reservist Master Corporal Brian Kerluke of the British Columbia Dragoons fires his C6 during the Armoured Reconnaissance live fire battle run as part of Exercise Western Defender, 4 May 2009.

DND photo LG2009-0211 by Corporal Bill Gomm

Reservist Master Corporal Brian Kerluke of the British Columbia Dragoons fires his C6 during the Armoured Reconnaissance live fire battle run as part of Exercise Western Defender, 4 May 2009.

 

This leads to a final point regarding the nature of the Primary Reserve. For 90 percent of us - with the exception of those on Class B, B(A) or C contracts,5 it is a part-time job that yields on average between $6000 and $8000 per annum before taxes. The reason I mention this is to bring to light another misconception about the Primary Reserve, namely, that it provides a job that yields a significant level of income. Money as a motivator is relative to the total income of the person in question. With respect to young civilian professionals in the Primary Reserve, the income generated by their military service represents, on average, less than ten percent of the total household income in dual-income families.6 I note these values to pre-empt the retort made by many that ‘the Primary Reserve is a job like any other and should be treated as a priority.’ While I would agree with this statement, as would most reservists, the ‘job’ in question remains, at best, a second priority based upon the simple reality that the income one makes with the Primary Reserve does not ‘pay the mortgage.’ The reservist’s civilian job does so, and his main professional efforts will always of necessity remain there. The Canadian Forces must accept the reality that they must ‘take a back seat’ to the civilian priorities of its Primary Reserve members and they must also find ways and means to enhance and exploit this reality of life. Successful people or those with great potential for success in the civilian world are inherently busy, and despite their best efforts directed at time management, it is an impossible feat for them to succeed, both in their civilian and military lives, without the military being prepared to ‘meet them half way’ when it comes to their particular training needs. In short, the CF must do more to enable reservists to succeed in the civilian work force, rather than impede their progress in it, or they risk losing some of the highest-quality members of the Primary Reserve.

What Do We Need To Do?

The solution to this problem is actually quite simple: modify the Primary Reserve training system to accommodate busier civilians through more distance learning and shorter residency periods for courses.

Most of the mid-to-senior-level courses (with the exception of short field portions) are classroom-based. The vast majority of taught material involves instruction from manuals, followed by some assignments to help confirm knowledge, and then conclusion with an exam. All this can be accomplished through a combination of distance learning and exams administered at home units through a proctor, such as the Regular Force support staff officer. Field portions are typically no more than two weeks in duration, and, as a result, would be far more manageable for Primary Reserve senior NCOs and officers to attend after having completed the theoretical portions at home. The field portion would remain the ‘acid test’ for leaders to confirm that their proficiency in the theoretical translates effectively to the practical.

Summing up, the problem that currently exists is ineffectively scheduled military training that does not suit army reservists with professional civilian careers. The solution is to re-adjust the training to meet this need. As a final thought, it is worth mentioning why I believe reservists serve beyond their university/college years. The reasons they stay mainly revolve around the camaraderie of the regiment and the simple joy of service. It would behove the army to reciprocate this commitment by trying harder to accommodate the demanding professional civilian careers of these citizen-soldiers, so they can continue to serve and represent the military within their communities and professional lives.

Major Daniel A. Doran, a combat engineer, holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Civil Engineering from the Royal Military College of Canada, and a Master’s Degree in Human Security and Peace Building from Royal Roads University. He has served as Deputy Task Force Engineer in Afghanistan during ROTO 01 of Op Athena, and has deployed as a United Nations Military Observer to Sudan. He is currently a reservist and Commanding Officer of 4 Field Squadron at 34 Combat Engineer Regiment, Westmount, Quebec. In civilian life, he is currently an Associate Director for the Department of Project Management at McGill University.

Part of the 900 reservists from the 35th Canadian Brigade Group participating in Exercise Franchissement Audacieux near Charlevoix, Quebec, 1 October 2011. They are crossing the St. Lawrence River in one of 30 inflatable assault boats to attack a fictional enemy on the other side.

DND photo VL2011-0230-005 by Corporal Isabelle Provost

Part of the 900 reservists from the 35th Canadian Brigade Group participating in Exercise Franchissement Audacieux near Charlevoix, Quebec, 1 October 2011. They are crossing the St. Lawrence River in one of 30 inflatable assault boats to attack a fictional enemy on the other side.

 

NOTES

  1. CBC. (4 October 2011). “B.C. ranks poorly in global holiday rankings.” Accessed 06 January  2012, from CBC News Network at  http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2011/10/04/bc-public-holidays.html.

  2. Government of Quebec. (27 November 2008). “Reservists.” Accessed 09 January 2011, from Commission des normes du travail at http://www.cnt.gouv.qc.ca/en/leaves-and-absences/reservists/index.html#c9721.

  3. U.S. Government. (14 September 2010). “Employee Tenure Summary.” Accessed 10 January  2011, from United States Department of Labor at http://www.bls.gov/news.release/tenure.nr0.htm.

  4. R. Unger.(Autumn 2011). “How much are Primary Reservists worth?” in the Canadian Military Journal , Vol. 11, No. 4, pp. 61-63.

  5. DND. (22 July 2009). “Administrative Policy of Class "A", Class "B" and Class "C" Reserve Service.” Accessed 07 January 2012, from Chief of Military Personnel at http://www.cmp-cpm.forces.gc.ca/pd/pi-ip/20-04-eng.asp.

  6. Statistics Canada. (15 June 2011). “Average income after tax by economic family types.” Accessed 12 January 2012, from Statistics Canada at http://www40.statcan.ca/l01/cst01/FAMIL21A-eng.htm.