Continuing from the first half of this Entry, we will be exploring the educational curricula of the Students who are interested in becoming Central Planners of the Ministry of Economics and Superintendents of the State Commissariats. The curriculum for each Professions is related to the specifications outlined previously. To reiterate, these Professions will require a higher education curriculum designed to allow prospective candidates the experience and expertise that are to be expected of them. Anyone who succeeds in joining those Professions must be able to demonstrate what they had mastered as soon as the opening hours of a given workweek. Such a requirement can only be satisfied by the implementation of a national educational system specifically tailored to realizing those qualifications.
One of the primary purposes of the SSE is to realize the Total Educational Effort, the ability to provide a combination of classroom instruction and hands-on applications in order to master talents, hone skills, and realize untapped potential. The Student Body at the secondary and tertiary educational levels are both learning and training for their future Vocations while others are seeking to join a Profession that appeals them. The Student Government exists to not only act as the governing body under the supervision of the Ministry of Education, but also to facilitate the training of those striving toward political positions among the parties or positions within the central government. The Total Educational Effort is designed to ensure that everyone has a general understanding of how the Socialist Nation operates in both theory and practice, from the VCS Economy and Reciprocal-Reserve Banking System to the Council State and National Intranet.
An exhaustive study of the Total Educational Effort is beyond the immediate aims of this Entry. It will be discussed later in another Entry of The Third Place (1st Ed.), where I will address the philosophical and theoretical conception behind it as well as cover other aspects not mentioned here. Until then, we will be addressing the unique roles of prospective Central Planners and Superintendents in the SSE as well as their distinct educational curricula.
Rules of Engagement: Central Planners
The training of Central Planners actually begins with the initial training of the Economic Planners themselves. In the tertiary educational level, the universities, Economic Planners must learn the basic of overseeing the administrative and organizational affairs of different Enterprises and how they are supposed to be governed under Council Democracy. They also have to learn about the specifications of the Work-Standard, how to conduct MTEP (Mission-Type Economic Planning), and what is to be expected of them in the workspace. They will even be instructed on the issuance of NSFIs (National-Socialized Financial Instruments), their intended functions, and their proper applications. This information will be conveyed to them in the classroom as well as through hands-on experience with them in the SSE itself. Whatever is learned in the classroom will be put into practice, and it is expected of every Economic Planner to reapply those concepts as part of their educational curriculum.
As discussed earlier in The Work-Standard (2nd Ed.), each Economic Planner has their own retinue of Accountants who assist them in the day-to-day operations of the Enterprise they have been assigned to. The same applies in the SSE, as every Economic Planner will have their own retinue of Accountants to act as their Comrades. There will be plenty of opportunities for the Economic Planners to interact with their Accountants, whether in the SSE or in the actual workforce.
When it boils down to the actual fieldwork, the SSE has a number of special Enterprises which are run and operated by the Student Body. Prior to this Entry, I have discussed about five specific types of distinct Enterprises and the ways in which they might become relevant to the SSE’s Total Educational Effort. Those were “Cooperatives,” “Small Businesses,” “Second-Hand & Antiques,” “Workshops,” “Department Stores,” and “Supermarkets.” The Student Government maintains them for educational purposes, in addition to keeping them as sources of Actual Arbeit and Actual Geld for the Life-Energy Reserve. All five Enterprises correspond to at least one of the five economic organization types discussed back in Section One and expanded further earlier in Section Two. The Explicit Intent is to provide all Economic Planners with practical experience in working with the personnel of PDEs, POEs, NSEs, SOEs, and SAEs. The same Intent applies to also having to learn how to work alongside the members of a Guild.
Teams of Economic Planners and their Accountants will be assigned to each Enterprise within the SSE. From there, they will be tasked with applying what they had learned back in the classroom and executing them in actual practice in an actual workweek. Presiding over all teams are their respective university professors and instructors, who are expected to judge their performances and grade them according to how they affected the Quality of Arbeit (QW) and Quality of Geld (QM) of their assigned Enterprise. Those who managed to keep the QW and QM stabilized are considered to have passed, whereas those who succeeded in increasing an Enterprise’s QW and QM will be graded higher, and those who let the QW and QM fall are considered to have failed.
Those who demonstrate latent leadership and organizational skills, can coordinate more than one Guild or Enterprise, and fulfill the qualifications required of Central Planners will be recognized by their professors and instructors. The professors and instructors are expected to recommend the exceptional Students to the higher educational courses related to Central Planners, which is where the real training of Central Planners begins. For the goal of this arrangement is to separate the potential Central Planners, who are capable of overseeing multiple Enterprises, from the regular Economic Planners who are best presiding over an Enterprise or two.
In the education and training of Central Planners, the stakes are a lot higher compared to the Economic Planners. Rather than one or two Enterprises, the curriculum will focus on entire Industries and Economic Sectors within the SSE. The instructors and professors here will be evaluating how the prospective Central Planners are overseeing their subordinates among the various Guilds and Enterprises as well as coordinating their efforts vis-à-vis the “Total Economic Potential (TEP)” and the “Total Financial Potential (TFP).” All of the more advanced and sophisticated capabilities of the Work-Standard will be made available to the prospective Central Planners in order to determine how they employ them in the SSE. That includes having to balance the Attrition/Inaction Rate, coordinating with their prospective Superintendent counterparts and their own subordinates, and allocating and distributing Arbeit and Geld to and from the Life-Energy Reserve.
Aside from having to ensure that the Guilds and Enterprises downstairs are doing their best, the Central Planners will also be working with all of the NSFIs issued by Kontore (Financial Offices) and collaborating with the National-Socialized Banks (NSBs) and State Banks. Moreover, they will also be learning about the roles of Digital Arbeit and Digital Geld in the LERE Process, how Military Arbeit and Military Geld gets converted into Actual Arbeit and Actual Geld under the LER Process, and the more refined techniques of Auftragstaktik as part of MTEP. Everything that actual Central Planners are supposed to be doing on a daily basis at the Ministry of Economics is instilled and conveyed to all prospective candidates. Anybody who fails to succeed in what is otherwise a hectic and challenging environment will be disqualified and returned to the regular courses with the rest of the Economic Planners. Those who succeed will have a standing chance at joining the other Central Planners at the Ministry of Economics.
Rules of Engagement: Superintendents
Much like the training of Central Planners, the training of Superintendents begins with the training of Inspectors. The same can be said for where the educational curriculum occurs, which also begins with at the tertiary educational level. And the Inspectors will get to work alongside the Economic Planners at the same Enterprises within the same SSE. Where they begin to differ from the Economic Planners are their intended roles in the SSE.
The classroom instruction of Inspectors involves having to learn about the financial and legal side of the Work-Standard, including how to apply all aspects of the Work-Standard into everyday legal parlance. The rules and regulations of Actual Arbeit and Actual Geld, Digital Arbeit and Digital Geld, and Military Arbeit and Military Geld are instilled to the prospective candidates. The candidates are expected to learn about the roles and functions of the State Commissariats, how they resolve disputes among the members of Enterprises and Guilds, and how to negotiate with others and conduct themselves in legal proceedings. When the time comes for practical applications, teams of Inspectors will be assigned to different Guilds and Enterprises by their professors and instructors. Everyone is expected to visit their selected Guild or Enterprise and evaluate the personnel and Economic Planners and Accountants at the workspace.
Inspectors are expected to talk to everyone at the workspace about their performance, how they are holding up in terms of Arbeit and Geld and addressing any suggestions on what needs to be improved to enhance the overall production process. Interviews will need to be scheduled and conducted with the Economic Planners and Administrators of the Enterprises. Questions are to be asked about their abilities to lead, their achievements, and how well they are doing compared to others within their respective Industry and the rest of the SSE at large.
Overall, the professors and instructors in charge of the Inspectors are looking to evaluate the prospective Inspectors based on how well they are handling any potential disputes, enforcing the regulations of the SSE, and communicating with Economic Planners and Administrators. They will also be interested in knowing whether the Inspectors are able to negotiate with others and cast judgments about the Quality of Arbeit and Quality of Geld of others around them. Those who succeed can be expected to graduate on up to State Commissars and Superintendents, with the real difference being that they will be working with Enterprises of increasingly larger economic organization.
Unlike smaller economic organizations, larger ones have more people to oversee and greater potential for things to go completely wrong. For prospective State Commissars and Superintendents, the professors and instructors want to see how well each candidate acts under pressure, adapts to time constraints, and make decisions that could affect the overall economic performance of entire Industries and Economic Sectors. Moreover, they will be looking to see if they are able to coordinate their activities with the Central Planners, who are going to need somebody to help regulate the TEP and TFP of different Industries and Economic Sectors across larger geographic locales beyond that of a small city. Covering entire regions, rural communities, towns and cities are where the challenges of State Commissars and Superintendents are readily apparent. While Superintendents are able to remain at the State Commissariats themselves, the actual State Commissars are expected to travel across their given jurisdiction to preside over key decisions that could affect the livelihoods of countless people.
To ensure that State Commissars reach their destinations, each will be provided with their own regulation vehicle and communications equipment. The vehicle will ensure that they will reach their intended destinations, while the communications equipment keeps them contact with their Superintendents back at the State Commissariat. All State Commissar are expected to be in close contact with their Superintendents, updating them on anything of interest and other matters which demand the full attention of the Superintendents themselves. The professors and instructors will be listening in as part of monitoring their teamwork and their ability operate across vast distances. Those who succeed in their respective roles will become qualified for State Commissar or Superintendent, whereas those who fail will be demoted back to Inspector.
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