Digital Job Book for Soldiers Debuts
By Jonathan (Jay) Koester - NCO Journal
March 30, 2016
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The Army’s new Digital Job Book, which makes it easier for Soldiers and small unit leaders to track training, was made available today on the Army Training Network.
The new job book records physical training, weapons qualification, mandatory training, scheduled classes and unit training schedules. It uses data from the Digital Training Management System to replace information recorded on paper job books for active duty, reserve and National Guard units.
To access the job book, go to the ATN page (https://atn.army.mil) and click on the myTraining tab at the top of the page. Then you will see the Digital Job Book under the DTMS heading. You also can access the Digital Job Book from Army Knowledge Online. Click on the Self Service tab and then the My Training tab.
In February, Command Sgt. Maj. Richard Johnson, command sergeant major at Combined Arms Center-Training at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, talked to the NCO Journal about the impetus for bringing back the job book in digital form.
“When I was a young — well, I never was a young Soldier because I enlisted late in life — but when I was a junior enlisted Soldier, we were issued a little job book that was about the size of a three-by-five card that was probably seven or eight pages,” Johnson said. “You carried it around in your uniform pocket, and as you successfully performed a task, your sergeant would sign off in the job book. The goal was to complete all the tasks, and that was your certification that you were qualified.
“The digital capability allows us to follow a Soldier throughout the life cycle of a Soldier, throughout their career,” Johnson said. “The analog book, it would get lost, it would get damaged, if you moved from one unit to another, you sometimes had to start over. The capabilities with the digital job book allow Soldiers to track and show proficiency throughout their time in the service.”
Johnson said the digital job book should give Soldiers some awareness of where they stand in relationship to their peers, sparking competition and inspiring Soldiers to work harder to be proficient at required tasks.
“It will help enable Select, Train, Educate and Promote (STEP),” Johnson said. “You can use this as a leader to see where your Soldiers are at on a certain skill, to give you quantifiable data to recommend them for promotion or not. It will be a great tool for leaders to use that way.
“It also has potential in the future to enable credentialing, licensing and certification for Soldiers,” Johnson said. “If a Soldier is looking to receive a license, credential or certification, the leader can load those tasks into the Soldier’s job book, then track the completion of those tasks. And it also has the ability to track re-occurring tasks. Say you’re a medic and you have to re-certify on a medical task to keep your credential, this would notify the Soldier that they are due to re-certify on the task.”
Data from the job book allows leaders to easily monitor unit training and quickly add training tasks to units and individual Soldiers.
Small unit leaders can follow their Soldiers’ training status on the Digital Leader Readiness Tool dashboard. The Digital Leader Readiness Tool is also accessed at the ATN My Training Tab and the DTMS portlet.
The Digital Leader Readiness Tool is available for small units and designated leaders once built by the unit in DTMS. The Digital Leader Readiness Tool provides an electronic dashboard summarizing small unit training information using gauge-type displays.
Leaders can select any of the gauges to get to by-name reports about their Soldiers meeting training standards and needing to complete training requirements.
If you have questions about the Digital Job Book or the Digital Leader Readiness Tool, you can e-mail: usarmy.leavenworth.cac.mbx.dtmshd@mail.mil. You can also call 913-684-2700, or 877-241-0347.
Mike Casey of Combined Arms Center-Training contributed to this report. Photo illustration by Spc. James Seals with original photo by Mike Casey.