WEBF
“Do the right sort of people get employed by the MOD? Several years ago I stumbled on a page on the net about some Social Science graduate who had left university and walked into a job in procurement working on JCA. This is true - unfortunately.
Perhaps I am being unfair on this individual, but to take a graduate in a non technical subject with no relevant experience..........”
Unfortunately, what you describe has been increasingly common since the last CDP announced some 10 years ago that he did not want technical project managers, and was getting rid of 500. (I think in the end 350 or so left). That was a huge percentage of PE’s technical experience, given the majority of staff at Abbey Wood are in non-technical and/or non productive posts. That is, they do not contribute directly to the primary aim – delivering technology in the form of equipment capability. To be fair to the current incumbent, he regularly trashes the barking decisions of previous administrations.
Historically, one typically needed 5 or more promotions to get to the lowest civilian technical grade in DPA (C2/HPTO) – now, as you say, they not only slot people straight in at this grade but they need not be engineers. Nor are they expected to catch up on the core experience they lack, yet is expected of others of the same grade. (Remember, at a grade lower a civilian will often have been in charge of a 100 strong engineering team. A C2 at a workshop, where unsurprisingly they have few direct entrants, will be a Production or Engineering Manager). So, you have a two tier system in MoD now. A direct entrant will often be a minor cog in a team, or charged with delivering the most simple project – then he is promoted. Many are little more than minutes secretaries. On the other hand, someone of the same grade with proper experience will often have numerous large and complex projects to run, by himself. There have been, and remain, whole IPTs in DPA whose task is minuscule compared to a single project manager in other IPTs.
To repeat a truism – You can always predict the problems on a project by checking the PM’s background.