Publication:Sea Talk Winter 2007/Building the Navy’s future

By WO Mark Monaghan – Command Warrant Officer Recruit School

Do you want a job that provides a very high level of job satisfaction?

Looking to expand you leadership and management skills?

Always wanted to be part of the future of the Navy?

The RAN Recruit School is where you can get the answers to all these questions. As a member of the training staff you will gain a wide range of valuable skills that will assist you for the rest of your career.

Looks a lot like a job advertisement doesn’t it? Well that’s because it is and I am keen to gain the Navy’s best to do the best job in the Navy. Why would you want to come to Recruit School? I can give you an example from my own experience.

I joined the RAN in January 1979 from Queensland. Arriving at Recruit School at the height of a Victorian summer, I found it a bit cold and dreary, but I pressed on and passed the course; then proceeded to do my category training. From then on I had a number of postings but in 1989 I was offered a position as an instructor at the Recruit School.

I took up the job with a fair bit of resignation but soon found, unlike my previous postings, this was something completely different. The weather was not always the best; - HMAS Cerberus is a bit of a distance from anywhere; there was a lot of extra hours required; the recruits where not like what I thought I was like when I joined; and I had to learn how to teach people such things as washing, ironing, cleaning, marching, marks of respect, team work, co-operation, etc.

Once I had honed my instructor skills I started with a group of 20-plus recruits with little in common with myself and their peers.

I had 12 weeks to get them to the point where they could marched onto parade as a well disciplined, proud and enthusiastic new member of the RAN. It is not an easy thing to do. There were times of great frustration and yet other times of great fun. The task was hard both physically and mentally but the personal rewards where high.

As an instructor, I was a mentor for every recruit not just my own class and I had to demonstrate the Navy values at all times. I understood the importance of my role as an instructor and so did all those that where serving at the school with me.

The process of moulding people from being a civilian to someone who can take their first steps towards being a sailor gave me a great deal of self pride and job satisfaction. My time spent as an instructor remains one of the major highlights of my career.

During the second half of 2006 the opportunity arose for me to apply for the position as the Command Warrant Officer of Recruit School and I believed that my previous experiences at Recruit School had prepared me very well for this important and challenging role.

I was selected from a very strong field of fellow warrant officers and in January of this year I took up my position. I came to the school knowing that there have been many changes since I had been an instructor. I also knew that I was becoming part of the exceptional team that provides a superb service to our Navy.

I soon found that although there had been some changes to the method of delivering training the task its self had not changed. The instructors and staff continued lay the keel for the future of our navy and the training provided to recruits builds the foundation for our sailors.

The training principles that I experienced as a recruit, delivered as an instructor and now assist staff in providing have not changed. We continue to instil the Navy’s values that are the strength of our serving members.

The quality of the people that are willing to join our Navy remains some of the best that our nation can provide. Their mindset may be different to when we joined but we here at the school provide the first step in their future career. They leave the school full of pride in their achievement in passing their first test on the way to being a trained profession in the service of their country.

So if you feel that want to be part of this fantastic team then complete an EPAR and forward it to your career manager, talk to your local career management cell, visit our intranet site at http://intranet.defence.gov.au/navyweb/Sites/RecruitSchool/, Email: CPR CWO RS@defence.gov.au or Phone: 03 5950 7734