3.7 Information on time in training aids understanding of the factors that affect how long it takes to train aircrew. It is also critical for planning when students need to begin training if they are to be ready to meet military needs.
3.8 The Department does not routinely analyse data on training time, nor monitor or report it systematically, to enable comparisons or guide decision-making. This is because there are no agreed and complete central data on students progressing through training. Each of the three services has its own information. The Royal Air Force manages flying training but only has detailed information on the progress of its students. Detailed data on Royal Navy and Army students must be requested when it is needed.
3.9 Analysis is sporadic, or reactive before specific meetings (such as quarterly air pipeline management meetings), or in response to requests. Any analysis is often labour intensive and much data is manually collated because data are not stored in a way that makes analysis easy. The quality of the data is also open to challenge. The data are neither collected consistently nor subject to a common quality assurance process.
3.10 The data do not help analysis of the relative effects of the complex factors that affect training time. Time in training can be affected by course sequencing, weather and availability of aircraft, instructors and even students themselves. Understanding the relative effect of factors, and how to influence them, is critical in trying to reduce time in training. It is also important in helping the Department understand risk and dependencies it is transferring to its training provider, and those it retains. For example, whether efforts to increase availability of training aircraft would be undermined by a shortage of military instructors.