Inspector General: TSA Training "Can Be Improved"
 

Via the Washington Post Federal Eye Blog. This may partly explain why TSA procedures vary so much from airport to airport.

U.S. Rep. Bennie G. Thompson released a DHS Inspector General's report on TSA's training program for screeners. The chart on page 27 is worth the price of admission: new hires get 80 hours of coursework and 60+ hours of on-the-job training. (Or about half the length of my long-ago Air Force basic training.) The report is here:

http://www.dhs.gov/xoig/assets/mgmtr...1-05_Oct10.pdf

What the IG found was, no surprise, disorganization. Some quick points:

• TSA established a training division in 2006, but it "did not assume leadership until 2009"
• There is no written procedure for updating training courses
• There are no measures of training program effectiveness
• During OJT, a new screener is most likely to have only one person monitoring him or her
• Employees often don't train on the equipment they will be using
• Some training computers are far from checkpoints, while others are located inside checkpoint areas, where trainees are surrounded by distractions
• Employees are not given adequate time to finish computer-based lessons, so they rush through them

No wonder that when encountering a TSO, YMMV.

It's not like it matters anyway, does it?

As I said in another thread, these people get 60 hours of training.

Disney University is 7 weeks. Just sayin'...

I don't think we needed a Government Study for this..... I could have told them for that for a heck of a lot less.

Yes, but how long does it take to learn to yell, fail to detect threats, and make up policy as you go along?

I'm guessing a lifetime as it's near impossible to shitcan a govt employee without a paper trail a mile long.

And in related news, the sky is blue.

Emphasis mine. There are no measures of the effectiveness of anything else in TSA either.

The fact that TSA does not need to prove it is effective (or cost-effective) at any level or for anything should tell everyone what they need to know about this theatrical power grab.

Just out of the interest of accuracy, 80 hours of coursework in a classroom + 60 hours of on the job training = 140 hours of instruction. That is greater than 60 hours of training.

FB

Inspector General Reports TSA Poorly Trained
 

http://blogs.wsj.com/middleseat/2010...tigators-find/

I've been lurking a few days, but haven't seen any discussion of this particular topic.

I know the TSA says their lack of consistency is deliberate, but after reading the IG report (there's a pdf download on the website), its clearly much more likely that they really are just making things up as they go along. And even though the terror threat is evolving, TSA training is not; nor do they have any coherent process to update and disseminate training material. Even for a government agency, that's just pathetic.

Nooooo.... that is wrong. TSOs are trained professionals. Pissy said so, so it's true.:rolleyes:

nice WSJ article

first posted in thread:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trave...-improved.html

a week ago

Thanks IG, now why don't you tell us something we don't know, so we don't feel bad about paying taxes.

I don't think it needed an IG investigation to determine TSA training is poor.

Just ask people in the airports.

Read the TSA Blog.

Read the news!

Two words: Ya think? :rolleyes: