Development of the NOAA Scientific Support Coordinator Training Guidebook

ABSTRACT This paper provides an overview of the Scientific Support Coordinator (SSC) Training Guidebook and describes the knowledge and skills necessary for the SSC position. This Guidebook provides a principal set of knowledge and skills that a well-rounded SSC needs to successfully perform their duties. It describes technical skills and indicates opportunities for employees to acquire them. The Guidebook does not replace informal strategies, such as mentoring or on-the-job training, but incorporates all such informal strategies with more organized methods into a single document. We have included an introduction and background to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the Office of Response and Restoration (OR&R), and the role of the Scientific Support Coordinator (SSC). We identify the SSC mandates, missions, and duties; establish the need for the Guidebook by describing the complexities of the job, anticipated turnover due to retirements, need for consistency across the country, increased need for bench depth, and NOAA Corps rotational assignments. The process employed to design and implement the Guidebook is explained, along with the rational for the design elements and content. Included are relevant examples from the Guidebook. A discussion on the use and implementation for new SSCs and the anticipated outcome from implementing this type of formalized and documented indoctrination process and training program are offered. This new Guidebook is more than a simple checklist. One goal of this revision is to be engaging for new SSCs. To achieve that goal, SSCs themselves wrote this Guidebook from the perspective of the new SSC, explaining the benefits of the Guidebook's elements specifically for a new SSC. Workgroup members analyzed the previous versions to identify the assumptions about knowledge and skills of the new SSC when they are hired, and the expected improvements in knowledge and skills that will be gained once they have been completed.