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EDUCATIONAL SERVICES
CAREER DEVELOPMENT
CAREER DEVELOPMENT FOR MILITARY PERSONNEL
- Enlisted Non-Resident Training
- Enlisted Professional Military Education
- Enlisted Professional Development
- Officer Professional Development
- Servicewide Exams
- Advanced Education Programs
- Officer Programs
ENLISTED NON-RESIDENT TRAINING
Essentially, non-resident training (NRT) is the military equivalent of college distance learning. The NRT elements of the advancement system currently include
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taking a non-resident training rating course ("correspondence course"), the format for which has been modified recently and is now called a Performance Qualification Guide (PQG),
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demonstrating proficiency in the required rating-related skills (EPQs or "practical factors"), and
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passing a test upon completing the rating course (an end-of-course test).
You can order PQGs and other course materials through your ESO. Just send an e-mail specifying which course(s) you want and your employee ID number. If you're a Reservist, please also send the address to which you want your course sent.
Enlisted Rating Advancement Training System (ERATS)
The information below is correct for most Coast Guard ratings today. However, ALCOAST 577/11 announced a new Enlisted Rating Advancement Training System (ERATS) which is expected to be fully implemented by November 2015. As ratings are brought under the new ERATS (the ALCOAST includes a target implementation date for each rating), PQGs and EPQs will be replaced by Rating Performance Qualifications (RPQs). That is, there will no longer be separate EPQs and courses for each rate. This diagram illustrates how the current system and ERATS relate to each other.
Performance Qualification Guide (PQG)
In the not-too-distant past, an enlisted person received a course from the Coast Guard Institute and was on her own to complete it. There was no formal guidance or structure for completing it or otherwise preparing for the end-of-course test (EOCT). (This is still the case in a few ratings.)
Over the last four years, old-style courses have been replaced by courses in a new Performance Qualification Guide (PQG) format. Each new PQG course is a self-paced tool that's based on EPQs. PQGs are realistic instruction-learning tools and provide structure for on-the-job training. The PQG format employs a more interactive approach to learning that embodied in the old correspondence courses. According to the former EPQ Manager for all enlisted rates (ETCM Dave Robinson, ret.), "It systematically links on-the-job learning to supervisor/mentor involvement through a semi-formal process.” This means you will work with your Professional Development Coach (PDC, formerly Professional Development Supervisor) to demonstrate mastery of your PQG and EPQ materials and tasks. To make it easier to keep track of your progress, most PQGs include a monthly tracking sheet.
The different volumes of each PQG are training aids to prepare you for the next higher pay grade in your rate. The information you learn and skills you perfect with the help of the PQG probably won't be easy to master. This is because it's college-level material. By this I mean that the knowledge you gain from the course is the equivalent of knowledge you'd gain if you were taking a college course.
To get the most out of your PQG/course, check out the step-by-step guide elsewhere on this web site.
You order your course (regardless of format) through your ESO by providing your employee ID number. It will be sent directly to you at your work address or, if you're a Reservist, at your home address. (Reservists will need to provide their ESO with the address they want the course sent to, as well as their employee ID number.) Although the Institute quotes a delivery time of four to six weeks, courses often arrive in two to three weeks or even less. You can also download most of the PQGs as PDF files from CG Central (click the "Learning" tab, then the "Non-Resident Training Courses" link on the left-hand menu).
You must complete demonstrate your ability to perform each item in each lesson of your Performance Qualification Guide Certification Pamphlet to your supervisor or Professional Development Coach before you are allowed to take an EOCT and qualify for advancement.
For more information on how the PQG and EPQs relate to each other, and the supervisor's role in each, you can download the brochure "The Supervisor & the Performance Qualification Guide (PQG)".
Enlisted Performance Qualifications (EPQs)
What are colloquially called "practical factors" are actually Enlisted Performance Qualifications (EPQs). They provide performance standards to enable the enlisted workforce to perform their jobs and prepare for advancement. An EPQ is a concise description of a job task that enlisted personnel in a rating and pay grade are expected to perform. EPQs
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serve as a “work order” to training centers that will develop curriculum and training;
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serve as a permanent record of an enlisted person’s attainment of the required rating and military qualifications;
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are used as a standard for making enlisted advancement recommendations;
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provide analysts with a baseline for a workforce’s required performance standards; and
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provide force managers, program mangers, facility managers, assignment officers, etc., a catalogue of performance factors.
The "Record of Performance Qualifications" (CG-3303C) for your rate is the form on which you keep track of which EPQs you've mastered. You can download them from the Coast Guard Learning Portal.
You must demonstrate proficiency in each EPQ by actually performing the task listed for your supervisor, who will then date and initial the item. If new EPQs for your rating are created in the future, you will be required to demonstrate proficiency in them, but you won't need to get signatures for EPQs previously demonstrated. These EPQs must be signed off by your supervisor or Professional Development Coach before you are allowed to take an EOCT and to qualify for advancement.
For more information on how the PQG and EPQs relate to each other, and the supervisor's role in each, you can download the brochure "The Supervisor & the Performance Qualification Guide (PQG)".
End-of-Course Tests
The purpose of the End-of-Course Test (EOCT) is to ensure you know what a petty officer of the next higher pay grade is supposed to know.
Many units (both ashore and afloat) maintain a library of end-of-course tests for each rating and pay grade, as well as for a number of other Coast Guard Institute non-resident training courses. This means you don't have to request that your ESO order the test from Institute; merely schedule a time to take the test with your ESO.
Coast Guard personnel at library units generally take EOCTs and AQEs using an on-line answer form which allows your responses to be transmitted electronically to the Institute.
Immediately after the on-line answer form is submitted, your test is scored and an e-mail is sent to you with your unofficial score. If you passed, the e-mail will give you your "unofficial qualifying score". If you didn't, it will list your "unofficial non-qualifying score."
Official results are posted in DirectAccess (under "Test Results") within a day or two after you take a test. These results are considered your official results. Currently, your ESO receives paper letters from the Coast Guard Institute either congratulating you for passing or, if you didn't, detailing what percentage of questions in each test section you got right. These letters are for your information only; it is the score shown in DirectAccess that is used to determine whether you qualify for a particular school, program, or duty. (In the near future, paper results letters will be eliminated and you'll receive an e-mail telling you the results of your test.)
Before you are authorized to take an EOCT your supervisor must verify that you've successfully completed the PQG and EPQs for the pay grades covered by the EOCT you want to take. The "Record of Performance Qualifications" (CG-3303C) has, in the "Remarks" section on page 2, a statement that must be completed. It says,
I certify that the person named below has satisfactorily completed all rate related course work and Enlisted Performance Qualifications (EPQ) for pay grade E-_____ and is eligible to take the end of course test (EOCT).
This is your PDC's statement to the ESO that you have completed both your PQG and EPQs. It must be signed and dated by your PDC or you will not be allowed to take the EOCT.
Some EOCTs are open-book tests. The Coast Guard institute has published rules for administering (and taking) these tests. You should familiarize yourself with these rules before you make arrangements to take your EOCT.
Open/closed-book rules for Deck Watch Officer and Nav Rules EOCTs are somewhat complicated. Click here to learn more about them.
Before You Take an EOCT or AQE …