Always 'Taking the Initiative to Step Half a Pace Forward,' He Has Broadened the Military Careers of Many Comrades

First-Class Staff Sergeant Li Xin of a Certain Naval Unit — 'Taking the Initiative to Step Half a Pace Forward'

■ Zhang Xin

First-Class Staff Sergeant Li Xin stands over 190 centimeters tall — most people have to look up when talking to him. He wears black-framed glasses, speaks in an unhurried manner, and has a habit of pushing his frames up.

Who is Li Xin? He is an instructor at the training detachment (教导队) of a certain naval unit, responsible for radio operator (报务) instruction and training. He also concurrently serves as the head of the naval forces' information and communications specialty vocational skills certification station (职业技能鉴定站) for the garrison area and surrounding region.

When comrades talk about Li Xin, they have a vivid assessment: whatever he does, he always "takes the initiative to step half a pace forward" — even when it is only a part-time duty.

The year he transferred from the radio operator company to the training detachment to serve as an instructor, Li Xin was given an urgent assignment to organize that year's vocational skills certification work for the information and communications specialty. After receiving the task, he learned as he worked and managed to complete it well enough.

But when the results came out, Li Xin found that his unit's pass rate was under 20 percent. "The gap with other services is so large — it's probably not as simple as individual differences among the soldiers," Li Xin thought, staring at the results sheet. "Our comrades have to prepare for the vocational skills certification on top of their already heavy training workload — that's no easy thing. A pass rate this low must be a real blow to morale. What can I do about it?"

Li Xin went to considerable lengths to contact units with high pass rates, and after multiple rounds of communication and inquiry, he found the reason. It turned out that the naval information and communications specialty had no complete, dedicated question bank of its own. Soldiers studying for the exam were using question banks from other services and branches, which resulted in an enormous scope of study material covering a wide range of specialties.

After consulting with higher authorities, Li Xin received the following reply: the naval vocational skills certification covers many specialties and is highly complex; the certification program has not been running long, and the question bank has not yet been completed.

"Since the higher authorities have not yet finished compiling it, can we put together our own question bank for the information and communications specialty to use in the meantime?" Li Xin submitted this suggestion to the competent higher-level department and quickly received a reply: approved.

In the months that followed, Li Xin worked overtime beyond his regular duties to sort through the study and training syllabi for nearly 20 sub-specialties within the information and communications specialty, and compiled questions on that basis. He set himself a countdown, determined to complete a question bank belonging to the naval information and communications specialty before the next certification examination.

Several months later, Li Xin submitted the compiled question bank to the examination-organizing unit and simultaneously distributed it to comrades preparing for the exam. The following year, when the unit again organized participation in the vocational skills certification examination, the pass rate rose to 80 percent.

Delighted, Li Xin decided to "step half a pace forward" once more.

"If we could do more to publicize and encourage comrades to sit for the certification, fewer of those who cannot remain in service due to a lack of certification results would have to leave with regrets. But relying on my voice alone, the reach of any publicity is still too limited..." Not long afterward, when Li Xin was sharing his frustrations with two counterparts from a certain naval academy, he put forward a proposal: "How about we put together a guidance handbook — something anyone can understand at a glance?" The three of them immediately agreed and got to work.

Because certification results bear directly on comrades' career development and advancement, the guidance handbook had to be absolutely accurate while also achieving the effect of being "understandable at a glance." Li Xin and the other two therefore gathered all relevant regulations on vocational certification, worked through each one carefully until they had a thorough grasp of it, extracted the essential content into itemized lists, and provided answers to frequently asked questions. As a final touch, they thoughtfully appended the contact information of the heads of each certification station, so that comrades could easily seek guidance.

Today, this handbook has become not only an indispensable reference (掌中宝) for naval information and communications specialty non-commissioned officers seeking to understand the details of vocational skills certification, but also a reference guide for certification stations organizing their certification work.

"Although I am a 'carrier' of policy, I absolutely cannot be satisfied with being only a 'carrier.'" Precisely because he always "takes the initiative to step half a pace forward," Li Xin has over the years taken on a great deal of additional work. But it is also precisely because of this that the military careers of many comrades have become broader.

"This year's certification work has new developments — we need to prepare in advance..." Now, Li Xin is getting ready to take another new "half pace" forward.