On enlistment, military personnel will undertake recruit or initial officer training to learn the fundamental skills expected of anyone in uniform.
This will involve weapon handling, security tactics, military law and administration, among other related topics. A significant part of Technical Mastery induction training interweaves with other aspects of the Military and Social Mastery to help assimilate civilians into the Profession of Arms. Holistic learning opportunities mean a single activity might include aspects of all three masteries. Drill, for example, is a powerful way of teaching a number of intangible attributes despite the actual Technical Mastery appearing to have minimal workplace requirements. By JPME Level 2, ADF personnel will be given both formal and experiential learning development opportunities to hone their Technical Mastery in their area of specialty. Members of the APS are typically employed with an expectation of being pre-trained but will be offered additional development opportunities for the job they perform.
By late JPME Level 2, experienced Defence personnel become increasingly valuable for employment in a wider range of fields. While some personnel choose to remain within their specialisation to achieve even greater expertise, others might seek an alternative career path, or perhaps just broaden their military awareness by taking an out-of-category posting, secondment or deployment.
JPME Level 3 allows for both advanced expertise in their initial employment area or continued transition to generic military roles. Personnel at this level will continue to be developed accordingly.
As personnel continue to JPME Levels 4 and 5, they become increasingly diverse in their employability and will typically be moved into new roles to increase their depth of expertise well beyond initial employment. Both short and long courses will complement these new posting areas, deployments or secondments.
Some roles within Defence require personnel to maintain linkages to external organisations for their Technical Mastery and to maintain professional currency.