QL1, 2, 3 ,4 - Please define

[baudspeed]

Okay, I know i may get flayed for this, but as the saying goes, there are no stupid questions (but i think we know different):

I am a civilian (pre)applicant, and am looking at possibly changing my entry plan and doing 4 years in reserves while i go to university and get my nursing degree, or paramedic designation. I have been reading on the forums here that to have the military train you as a medical technician you need something called QL 5.

Okay so now to the question that i cant find an answer for. Please define or post a link:
QL1
QL2
QL2
QL4
QL5

I suspect that the first three are done in BMQ?

(oh lord here comes the sarcastic comments and witty critisizms- brace for impact)

 

[navymich]

For reserves, for most MOCs, the trade courses are QL1, QL2, QL3.  Some trades continue on to QL4 (ex. MESO in the navy), while others follow the reg force course levels (QL3, QL5 etc).

ex. if a reserve navcomm and a reg navcomm were talking about their 3's course, the reservist would be talking about their highest level of training while the reg force member would be talking about their first trades course.

 

[baudspeed]

So the content of each QL level course varies based upon the trade/moc of the applicant/solider?

 

[RangerRay]

I believe this is how it's organised.  I was infantry, so some things may not be the same for medic!

QL1 - Application process
QL2 - Basic Training (otherwise known as BMQ)
QL3 - Basic Trade Training (Basic Infantry for me, Basic Medic for you, I assume)
QL4 - Specialist Training (infantry QL4 includes recce, comms, machine gunner, mortars (I think), etc.)
QL5 - ??

EDIT: If I'm wrong, please correct me.  It has been a while for me.

 

[baudspeed]

Ahh, there we go.. Thanks so much for the clarification!

 

[Nfld Sapper]

Well for us Engineers its a little bit different:

QL2 - BMQ & SQ
QL3 - Basic Trades Course aka Section Member Course
QL4 - Does not exist for the Engineers
QL5 - Advanced Trades Course aka Section 2I/C Course

 

[baudspeed]

No that helped alot. I had gotten the impression some of the anacronyms were different but used for the same thing. This has been great. Now that I am re-reading some of the posts, i am getting much more out of it. Thanks

 

[2929]

Okay, obvious QL means Qualification Level.  The "QL" system has been replaced with the DP system (Development Period?).

IIRC, the QLs went alittle like this...

QL1 - was not a course, rather what you were when you were a recruit without any courses.  Someone looking at your file would see you were QL1 and know that you hadn't completed Basic Training/BMQ/QL2 yet.
QL2 - now referred to as BMQ.  QL2/Basic Training/General Military Training/FELT are all different names for what is essentially Boot Camp, to go off the movie name.
QL3 - call this your Basic Trades Training.  Entry level training in your military trade.
QL4 - this one is different.  For some trades there are numerous QL4 trades available.  Such as Machine Gunner, Communications or Drivers courses in the Infantry.  In Armour, these were also known as PCF (Primary Combat Function) courses.  Driver, gunner, etc.  Some trades had only one QL4 course, some had no formal course (OJT) and some had more than one.  Trade specific variations.  Once  you were QL4 qualified (in my MOC, atleast, and Component) you were promotable to Cpl, with the required time in.
QL5 - for most trades, this was a course that Cpl's needed for MCpl, along with their Junior Leadership/CLC/PLQ (many different names over the years for the Junior Leadership course as well). 

Now I am sure that is not 100% and someone who remembers better than me, or who's Component or trade was different, will have a different answer. 

*edit - ok lots of people answered while I was slowly typing.  Hope this adds to their posts.  ;D

To compare the QL system to the DP system would put me WAY outta my lane, I left the training system for 5 years in 2001 when the DP system came into place and can't speak of it with any amount of detail.

However, as is common in the miltary, people who "came up" in one system tend to revert back to that when talking about the training levels.  I myself still tend to call our Sgt's course "6A" vice "DP3A".  Thats why you still see the QL around on the forum, IMHO, as lots of people here were around for more than one "renaming" of the trades training levels.

Hope this helped, and didn't confuse you. 

That's funny, most of our courses (Sig Op) still go by the QL system:

QL1 - No Trg
QL2 - BMQ
QL3 - Apprentice Lvl Trg (Det Mbr)
QL4 - OJT (Rarely done)
QL5 - Journeyman Lvl Trg (Det Comd)
QL6A - Req for promotion to Sgt
QL6B - ??

 

[2929]

Thanks for clearing that up.