Tech school overview

So, you’ve gone to MEPS, you’ve survived basic training, what now? Now you go to Tech School. This is where you will learn your specific job that was either guaranteed in your contract or that was given to you at the end of basic training. Basic training teaches you the basics of how to be in the military. How to march, how to wear your uniform, how to salute, and how to pay attention to detail. Tech school is where you will learn your actual specialty that you will be doing for the rest of your time in the Air Force (unless you retrain into another job later of course).

Location

There are half a dozen or so different bases that you may end up going to for tech school. These include Lackland where you went to BMT, Sheppard AFB, Keesler AFB and for a couple of AFSCs, Vandenberg AFB. There are other bases where you may go to tech school, it will just depend on your job.

Purpose

As I said previously, the purpose of tech school is to learn your job. This will be a combination of lecture and straight knowledge learning, as well as hands-on learning. You will be in class eight hours a day, with required PT (physical training) three days a week. You may also have additional details or duties to do, especially on the weekends, such as cleaning up the dormitories. Other than those responsibilities, your free time is yours to spend how you like. There is a phase system where you gradually gain more privileges as you stay longer at tech school, which I will write about in more detail on another page.

Length

The length of your tech school will depend on the job that you are training for. Some are as short as a month or two, others can be up to two years (such as cryptologic linguists).

Difficulty

The difficulty will also depend on the job. Most tech schools are fairly fast-paced though and cram a lot of information into a short time. Since your only job at tech school is to learn, you can expect the need to study outside of class, which will eat up some of your free time. However you’ll still have more free time than you ever dreamed of in basic training, so it isn’t that bad. Since your ASVAB score determines what jobs you are eligible for, hopefully you will not find your tech school too difficult to complete, but don’t expect to breeze through it without really trying either.