OCCUPATIONAL SURVEY REPO lip JNST0UMNECHAN IC/. ECHN IC IAN / AFSCs 3170, 31759 31770, AND 31790 (WILL BE CHANGED TO 316X3 ON 30 APRIL 1976), / - FPT R3 1 i - D D C 3/ D D C 0 CPATIONAL--EBRANCH UPSAATF1 OCC nI USAFOCCUATIOAL MEASUREMENT CENTER U 1u 1 199 66f LACKLAND AFB TEXAS 78236 Ea - APPROVED FOR PUBLI'C7 RELEASE; DISTRIBUION UNLIMITED A C:9 ' xi ~ i 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE NUMBER PREFACE --------------------------------------------------- 2 SUMMARY OF RESULTS----------------------------------------- 3 INTRODUCTION 4 ----------------------------------- INVENTORY DEVELOPMENT AND ADMINISTRATION---------------------- 4 SUMMARY OF BACKGROUND INFORMATION----------------------------- 6 CAREER LADDER STRUCTURE------------------------------------ 12 ANALYSIS OF DAFSC GROUPS ------------------------------------ 20 ANALYSIS OF AFMS GROUPS--------------------------------- 25 ANALYSIS OF TASK DIFFICULTY--------------------------------- 27 COMPARISON OF SPECIALTY TRAINING STANDARD (STS) TO SUMMARY DATA --------------------------------------------- 30 RELEVANCE OF TRAINING -------------------------------------- 33 APPENDIX A -------------------- --------------------------- 43 woui to A PREFACE This report presents the results of a detailed Air Force Occupational Survey of the Instrumentation Mechanic/Technician career ladder, AFSC's 31730, 31750, 31770, and 31790. The project was directed by USAF Program Technical Training, Volume 2, dated October 1974. Authority for conducting specialty surveys is contained in AFM 35-2, paragraph 2-1. Computer outputs from which this report was produced are available for use by operating and training officials. The survey instrument was developed by Mr. Hendrick W. Ruck, Inventory Development Specialist. Major Thomas J. O'Connor and Mr. James B. Keeth analyzed the survey data and wrote the final report. This report has been reviewed and approved by Major Thomas J. O'Connor, Chief, Operations/Support Career Ladders Analysis Section, Occupational Survey Branch, USAF Occupational Measurement Center, Lackland AFB, Texas, 78236. Computer programs for analyzing the occupational data were designed by Dr. Raymond E. Christal, Occupational and Manpower Research Division, Air Force Human Resources Laboratory (AFHRL), and were written by the Project Analy !s and Programing Branch, Computational Sciences Division, AFHRL. Because volume reproduction of this report is not feasible, distri- bution is made on a loan basis to air staff sections and major commands upon request to the USAF Occupational Measurement Center, attention of the Chief, Occupational Survey Branch (OMY), Lackland AFB, Texas 78236. This report has been reviewed and is approved. PETER E. LA SOTA, Lt Col, USAF WALTER E. DRISKILL, Ph.D. Commander Chief, Occupational Survey Branch USAF Occupational Measurement Center USAF Occupational Measurement Center 2 SUMMARY OF RESULTS 1. Career Ladder Structure: Twenty-five job groups were identified within the 317XO career ladder and are described in the CAREER LADDER STRUCTURE section of this report. Basically, these groups broke out by general instrumentation and by specific areas such as video, aircraft, satellite, and laboratory instrumentation. Detailed descriptions of these groups are also contained in Appendix A. 2. Career Ladder Input: Personnel are primarily assigned to the career ladder upon completion of technical training. However, many of the 7- and 9-skill level incumbents retrained into the career field or were converted from other AFSs. 3. Job Satisfaction: Approximately 78 percent of the survey respondents found their job interesting. This percentage compares to 69 percent for other Air Force incumbents surveyed during 1975. While a majority of the respondents also felt that their training was being used at least fairly well, a fairly high percent of the total group (40 percent) indicated that their training was being used very little or not at all. 4. Reenlistment Rates: The reenlistment rate for first term airmen was 60 percent for FY 75, as compared to the Air Force average of 40 percent. Second term and career reenlistments were also above Air Force averages. 5. Skill and AFMS Patterns: Overall, instrumentation personnel were performing the duties described in the AFM 39-1 specialty descriptions. Technical task performance was generally stable across skill groups and AFMS groups in terms of percent time spent. The major areas where noticeable changes occurred were in performing general repair functions and in inspecting and maintaining installed instrumentation systems. 6. Task Difficulty: The five most difficult tasks were technical tasks dealing with laser technology. Of those tasks rated above average in difficulty, most were related to the design, isolation, or analysis of electronic items. Of those tasks rated below average, most were related to general repair functions. 7. Specialty Training Standard: All paragraphs evaluated were found to be generally supported by the survey data. Only paragraph 23, covering standard test equipment, was found to contain discrepancies based on task performance data. (See COMPARISON OF SPECIALTY TRAINING STANDARD (STS) TO SURVEY DATA section of this report.) 8. Relevance of Training: The basic instrumentation mechanic course 3ABR31730 was evaluated and all blocks of training were generally supported by the survey data. This assumption was based on a criterion of 10 percent or more members performing those tasks related to each specific block of training. The 10 percent figure was used because very few tasks are performed by more than 30 percent of career ladder members. 3 OCCUPATIONAL SURVEY REPORT INSTRUMENTATION MECHANIC/TECHNICIAN CAREER LADDER AFSCs 31730, 31750, 31770, and 31790 INTRODUCTION This is a report of an occupational survey of the Instrumentation Mechanic/Technician career ladder, AFS 31730, 31750, 31770, and 31790 conducted by the Occupational Survey Branch, USAF Occupational Measurement Center, from January 1975 through February 1976. The report describes: (1)d evelopment and administration of the survey instrument; (2) summaries of tasks performed by airmen grouped by skill level, experience level, and similarity of tasks performed; (3)c omparisons with current training and career field structure documents; and (4) recommended actions for further study. INVENTORY DEVELOPMENT AND ADMINISTRATION The data collection instrument for the occupational survey was USAF Job Inventory AFPT 90-317-178. The inventory booklet was composed of two parts: a background information section in which job incumbents provided information about themselves; and a duty-task list section which assessed the relative amount of time spent on tasks performed in their current jobs. The latter section consisted of 715 tasks grouped under 22 headings. Thorough research of publications and directives, personal interviews with 34 subject-matter specialists at two bases, and written reviews from 55 experienced instrumentation mechanic/technicians contributed to the development of the survey instrument. Consolidated base personnel offices in operational units worldwide received the inventory booklets for administration to 1,360 job incumbents holding the DAFSCs identified above. Survey administration occurred during May 1975 through August 1975 based upon the May 1975 Uniform Airman Record. Table 1 gives the distribution of assigned personnel in the career lader as of May 1975 and the percentage, by major command, of inventory booklets returned from the field. This return rate was 57 percent of career field members surveyed and represents an adequate sample of the 317X0 career field population. After supplying identification and biographical information, incumbents checked and rated the tasks performed in their current job. Tasks were rated on a 9-point scale showing relative time spent on each task compared to ail other tasks performed in the current job. The ratings ranged from 1 (very-small-amount time spent) through 5 (about-average time spent) to 9 (very-large-amount time spent). Respondents did not rate tasks not performed in their current job. APPROVED FOR PUBLIC RELEASE; DISTRIBUTION UNLIMITED 4 In the development of the survey instrument, every effort was made to include all duties and tasks important to the accuracy and completeness of the survey. However, due to the possibility of omitting one or more important duties or tasks, instructions for completing the inventory urged respondents to write in any duties or tasks not listed. In this survey there were no significant write-in tasks. TABLE 1 COMMAND REPRESENTATION OF SURVEY SAMPLE PERCENT OF PERCENT OF COMMAND ASSIGNED SAMPLE AFSC 72 74 SAC '12 12 ATC 6 5 AFLC 5 4 ADC 4 4 OTHER 1 1 5 5m SUMMARY OF BACKGROUND INFORMATION Method of Assignment To Career Ladder Examination of the survey data relating to how incumbents were assigned to the 317X0 career ladder reveals several interesting facts. As shown in Table 2, most of the incumbents in the total sample (75 percent) completed a technical training course. However, when this data is broken down by skill groups, it is seen that most of the 5-skill level incumbents (90 percent) completed a basic technical training course, while less than half of the 7- and 9-skill level incumbents (49 and 42 percent respectively) were assigned via the technical training route. Of these higher grade incumbents, a large percentage of the 7-skill levels were retrained from another AFS, while many of the 9-skill levels were converted from another AFS. Relative Job Interest In comparison to job interest of personnel in 35 career ladders sur- veyed in 1975, shown in Table 3, DAFSC 317X0 job incumbents show a much higher interest in their work. Seventy-eight percent of the respondents in the survey sample indicated finding their jobs interesting. This compares to 69 percent for the 35 career ladder sample. Within the career ladder, there is an upward progression in positive job interest as incumbents pro- gress to the 7-skill level. However, at this point, job interest seems to level off, as indicated by the fact that 85 percent of both the 7- and 9-level groups found the job interesting. Table 4 depicts a similar upward trend in job interest amornq personnel by AFMS groups. The range is from 69 percent showing positive job interest among survey respondents in their first enlistment to a high of 90 percent reporting positive job interest for job incumbents in their third enlistment period. tlost of the later enlistment groups show a rarge between 80 and 84 percent expressing positive job interest. Perceived Utilization of Talents and Training Tables 5 and 6 display data on how the incumbents surveyed perceived the use of their talents across skill groups and enlistment groups. Twenty- two percent of the total sample felt their talents were being used very little or not at all. This trend is primarily reflected by lower skill groups, with 29 percent of 5-skill level personnel expressing negative feelings as opposed to only 14 percent of the 7-skill level incumbents and six percent of the 9-skill level incumbents. As for trends across enlistment groups, those incJmbents in their first enlistment showed a larger negative perception concerning use Gf their talents (31 percent) as compared to ten percent for those in their third enlistment period. 6 Perceived utilization of training as expressed by DAFSC and AFMS groups is shown in Tables 7 and 8. As with job satisfaction and perceived utili- zation of talents, there is an upward trend in positive feelings as skill level and experience level increases, with the peak being reached during the third enlistment period. However, the number of incumbents in the total sample expressing very little or no use at all of their training is quite high, with 40 percent expressing this opinion. As with utilization of talents, most of this negative perception occurs at the lower skill level groups (as shown by 49 percent of the 5-skill levels expressing a negative opinion as opposed to only 29 percent of the 7-skill level personnel) and with those incumbents in their first and second enlistment periods (48 per- cent for first enlistment personnel and 51 percent for second enlistment incumbents). Again, a sharp drop occurs after the second enlistment period, with only 28 percent of the incumbents in their third enlistment period perceiving that their training is being utilized very little or not at all. Reenlistment Intentions The expressed intentions toward reenlistment among survey respondents are detailed in Table 9. As usual, personnel in their first enlistment expressed the lowest amount (41 percent) of responses indicating they would definitely reenlist or were uncertain but probably would reenlist. When compared against actual reenlistment rates for first term airmen during FY 75 (see Table 10), the percent reenlisting is much higher (60 percent). In terms of second term personnel, expressed intentions to "reenlist" or "probably would reenlist" are only slightly lower than the actual reenlistment rate (71 percent versus an actual rate of 79.6 percent). 7 TABLE 2 METHOD OF ASSIGNMENT TO CAREER LADDER (PERCENT MEMBERS RESPONDING) TOTAL SAMPLE 5-LEVEL 7-LEVEL 9-LEVEL COMPLETED TECH TRAINING 75 90 49 42 RETRAINED FROM ANOTHER AFS 14 6 30 21 CONVERTED FROM ANOTHER AFS 5 - 12 30 REENLISTED AFTER PRIOR USAF SERVICE, OR FROM ANOTHER BRANCH OF SERVICE 3 2 5 3 RECLASSIFIED W/O TECHNICAL TRAINING 1 - 2 3 DDA WITHOUT BYPASS TEST 1 1 1 - DDA WITH BYPASS TEST - - - NOT REPORTED 1 1 1 1 TABLE 3 JOB INTEREST BY DAFSC GROUPS (PERCENT MEMBERS RESPONDING) TOTAL DAFSC DAFSC DAFSC OTHER AF SAMPLE 31750 31770 31790 SPECIALTIES* I FIND MY JOB: .(N:777L (N=438) (N=257) (N331 (N=21,107) INTERESTING 78 73 85 85 69 SO-SO 12 13 9 12 15 DULL 10 14 7 0 16 * Based on 35 career ladders surveyed during 1975. 8 TABLE 4 JOB INTEREST BY AFMS GROUPS (PERCENT MEMBERS RESPONDING) ENLISTMENT GROUPS Ist 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th I FIND MY JOB: (N=315) (N=139) (N=101) (N=56) (N86) (N=85) INTERESTING 69 83 90 82 84 80 SO-SO 16 9 8 9 9 9 DULL 14 8 2 9 7 7 NO REPLY 1 - - - - 4 TABLE 5 PERCEIVED UTILIZATION OF TALENTS BY DAFSC GROUPS (PERCENT MEMBERS RESPONDING) TOTAL DAFSC DAFSC DAFSC SAMPLE 31750 31770 31790 MY JOB UTILIZES MY TALENTS: (N=777) (N=438) (N=257) (N=33) PERFECTLY TO EXCELLENTLY 13 6 21 36 VERY WELL TO FAIRLY WELL 65 63 65 58 VERY LITTLE OR NOT AT ALL 22 29 14 6 9