Page 30 - Top Cover Issue 6

30 TOP COVER ISSUE 6
A risky business?

...taking chances in AFO training

In a recent issue of Top Cover, we reported on our work with AFOs of efficiency; if you can gauge what knowledge is there, you can
on the National Firearms Instructors Course in Kent. One of the avoid repeating unnecessarily. It also means that the trainer can
key things to come out of our experience with the programme focus on providing what the trainees really don’t know, just when
has been a rethink of the sorts of training techniques that they need to know it. These things can’t really be predicted by a
seem to work best in this type of setting. In fact, in many ways, “one size fits all” approach.
working with AFOs has meant a real rethink of the way we do This basically adds up to extra depth, a chance to challenge and
things in general. ask questions, have mistakes and misconceptions corrected.
On NFIC, trainees have to hit the ground running, and this is true Crucially, it means the trainer has chance to get an idea how
even – or especially - of the “academic input” where trainees much of a particular topic has actually been understood,
get to grips with the training skills they need to pass on their because the feedback from the learners isn’t just coming back
knowledge and experience in a professional and informed way. in the form of a written tick-box with no real application to
We like to get our trainees busy from day one planning and any sort of context. On the contrary, trainees are discussing a
delivering sessions, and one of the best examples of training situation in a team, developing a much more realistic situation
we have seen recently was in a session about dispatching where reactions and understanding begin to resemble what the
dangerous animals run by two trainees in Kent. The content of trainees might actually do in practice.
the session was, frankly, pretty dry and neither of us was really We think this sort of thing is quite revealing about what sort of
looking forward to assessing it. There didn’t seem to be much to training helps develop skills compared with the sort of training
say about shooting mad bulls and the like which could not have which just doles them out and hopes for the best. We feel it’s
been simply handed out on a fact sheet: where to aim and what important to recognise that experience like this is already
calibre of weapon to use seemed the only actual input. there in any group of AFOs. In fact, it seems to us that this
But instead of taking this easy way out, one team of trainees experience is sometimes ignored or at least downplayed by
handed out photos of different animals and a grid where trainees training techniques which just assume zero knowledge for the
themselves could work out and note down how best to deal with convenience of the trainer.
the situation. It took a bit longer than handing out a factsheet or What does this mean on the ground? Well, if there’s one thing
reeling off a presentation, but this approach turned out to have that we have to deal with it’s the problem of “front loading”.
a number of serious advantages. On one hand, it freed up the Everyone who has been subject to it knows that front-loading is
trainer to tackle some of the more interesting questions about all about the trainer. It’s about the trainer having the knowledge,
the problem. It also gave those who had actually been in such and expects that the trainee will be basically passive, in effect
situations a chance to tell the others what the best techniques just a mug waiting to be filled up to the brim by someone with
and approaches were. This did not just give the trainees time a jugful of knowledge. This is a caricature of course, but it’s a
to understand why a particular technique would work best, cosy one which is tempting, especially for hard-pressed trainers,
but also to share best practice and swap any innovations or because the trainer is in charge and can justify themselves. The
problems they knew about. It also added to the growing sense trainer decides how much to put in, and if they like they can just
of recognition of the diversity of the role which can sometimes keep on going whether the mug is full or not. That’s why, at its
be forgotten. worst, this sort of didactic training only asks one sort question:
What’s interesting is that this is all time well spent: it’s a question how much can I fit into an hour? How much can they take? How