Starfleet Enlisted Training Command
Starfleet Enlisted Training Command is the department within Starfleet Training Command responsible for basic and advanced training of all enlisted members of Starfleet. This department includes hundreds of separate Enlisted Training Centers across the Federation, as well as several Technical Service Academies for advanced training. All enlisted members of Starfleet go through basic training, but training beyond that is highly variable based on the individual's skills and prior experience.
Starfleet Enlisted Training Centers
Every recruit starts their Starfleet career at an Enlisted Training Center (ETC), which are found on most major starbases throughout the Federation as well as many member worlds and developed colonies. These centers guide new recruits through basic training and their apprenticeships, with the total time spent there ranging from six months to one year.
Starfleet Basic Training
Basic Training is a six-month course designed to prepare trainees for the rigors of space travel and the discipline and decorum required of all members of Starfleet. Physical training, classroom learning, and simulations are all a part of this experience, with a particular emphasis on safety and emergency procedures. Topics covered include zero-gravity training, starship and station emergency procedures, fitness and nutrition, first aid, and basic small arms use. This program covers the grade of Crewman Recruit.
Starfleet Career Apprenticeships
Career Apprenticeships are the next stage in the enlisted training program, and are a combination of classroom learning and job shadowing meant to prepare crewmen apprentices through a six-month course to become crewmen with a specialty in one of six basic areas of starship or station service:
- Engineering Technician Apprenticeship - Fundamentals of basic maintenance and damage control
- Science Technician Apprenticeship - Fundamentals of tricorder use, laboratory safety, and sample preparation
- Medical Technician Apprenticeship - Fundamentals of medical tricorder use, patient repositioning, and advanced first aid
- Operations Apprenticeship - Fundamentals of load balancing, cargo bay operations, and supply operations
- Security Apprenticeship - Fundamentals of hand-to-hand combat and marksmanship
- Yeoman Apprenticeship - Fundamentals of data security, report preparation, and protocol
Often, on training centers attached to starbases, apprentices will spend a lot of time actually learning from more senior enlisted members and officers in addition to more structured academic learning. Some ETCs on more isolated worlds use holodeck training to replicate this experience. Sometimes, deployment schedules and staffing needs will mean that crewmen recruits are posted directly to starships, where they finish their apprenticeships truly in the field. Upon finishing the apprenticeship stage, a crewman apprentice is promoted to crewman and is qualified for starship or space station service.
Often professionals with university degrees or other prior experience will enlist in Starfleet with no immediate desire to become an officer. While Basic Training is required for everyone, someone with significant experience as a civilian technician, medic, etc. may be allowed to skip the apprenticeship at the discretion of their training officer, advancing directly to Crewman from Crewman Apprentice.
Starfleet Services Academies
Services Academies provide enlisted personnel with opportunities to gain more education in a wide variety of specialty areas, both directly connected to the six apprenticeship programs and in areas like diplomatic and legal support, tactical, intelligence, and mentorship. Six-month and one-year programs exist and can be taken at multiple stages within an enlisted member's career. Many of these academies share resources and personnel with a Starfleet Academy campus, but they do not award academic degrees.
Not all enlisted members attend one of the Services Academies, and most do not go straight from enlistment through basic training and their apprenticeship to one of these programs unless they demonstrate high aptitude. Typically, these programs are taken either by petty officers looking to hone their skills and improve their chances of promotion to chief.
Starfleet Scientific Services Academy
The Scientific Services Academy provides foundational and intermediate training in core scientific disciplines, allowing enlisted members of the fleet to handle advanced laboratory work, or to move beyond lab technician duties to become scientists in their own right. The six-month programs offered here are in the broad scientific areas (planetary sciences, space sciences, biological sciences, and social sciences) that starship science departments are typically divided into, focusing on the broad boundaries of that area, the scientific method, and equipment use. There are also six-month programs in archival services and laboratory services, which focus on technical aspects of working in a starship's laboratories or archives.
The twelve month programs are more specialized. For example, under planetary sciences there are programs in geology, volcanology, meteorology, mineralogy, and geophysics. This is far too short a program to create a scientist from scratch, but the fundamental knowledge here allows them to learn more effectively on the job and develop the skills they need to become scientists.
Starfleet Technical Services Academy
The Technical Services Academy provides foundational and intermediate training in engineering and operations occupations, which allow enlisted members to gain critical technical knowledge in things like transporter operations, engine maintenance, and computer operation. Almost every transporter chief in the fleet has gone through a program here, as that is a field where on-the-job training must be matched with a rigorous theoretical understanding of how the system operates.
Starfleet Medical Services Academy
The Medical Services Academy offers training for corpsmen, medics, physician assistants, and medical laboratory technicians.