Weapons and Field Training
Generally, weapons will not be issued to the troops for the first two or three weeks, until the recruits are under some semblance of military order and discipline, but they likely will not stat actually shooting the weapons until the second month starts.
The troops will get periods of classroom instruction on proper holding, carrying and shooting techniques, then go into what is called "snap in": a kind of 'shadow boxing', where they aim in on targets and learn to get the "feel" of their weapon by squeezing the trigger in "dry fire", to gauge when the hammer will fall (this is alwas slightly different in each weapon).
After about a week of this, the recruits will go to the rifle range, and start actually putting rounds down-range; time, amount of ammo, and scoring all depend on how much time and money the State wants to put in its infantry.
Following the range, the recruit will spend 1 to 2 weeks doing field training - essentially a camp out where they will live in the woods/jungle/desert/whatever and run through day and nighttime assault courses. Again, depending on how much emphasis the State puts on its infantry, they may spend a week doing "chores": mowing grass, working in the mes hall, painting rocks (no, I'm not kidding) - they are free labor that are being paid anyway, and the base area needs to be kept looking sharp.
Month 3 will be spent in more advanced classes, getting dress uniforms issued, getting the troops through a battery of tests to check how well they learned the training syllabus, getting their final admin paperwork done, and getting them assigned into M.O.S.'s (Military Occupational Specialties) so that they an go to advanced schools after boot camp.
After c.90 days, the troops should be "basically trained" - they are good for things like guard duty and VERY light infantry work, but little else. There is usually a graduation ceremony at this point; if the troops are on their home planet, their families will likely be invited to attend. Fr many of the troops, this may be the first "graduation" they have ever gone through - it's a big day for them.
Depending on the State and how much it trusts its new troops, the troops will get 7-14 days of leave before reporting to their next school. Depending on the exact M.O.S., this specialist school can last anywhere from 30 days to 9 months or even a year or more...then, the troops are "released" to their new commands.
Depending on enlistment practices, as well as the individual trooper's M.O.S., the troops may spend the next 1 to 5 years in a single unit before coming up for reenlistment...unless the force is on a VERY old model, where the troops are in "for the duration" or for 15-25 years......
.....Now.
The preceding describes most reason armies that aspire to some form of professionalism, operating in an at least relative peacetime environment. The above often goes out the window when Pearl Harbor happens.
There is a method to produce battlefield-useful infantry troops in 4 weeks or less. These troops will have the technical field skills of the peacetime basically trained recruit, but little of the polish - that will have to be imparted as they go along, presuming they survive. Remember what I said about "longer training times equal better combat survival rates".
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So, that covers the infantry. What about mech-drivers?
That's a tough call. Armored vehicle/tank crews can take months and years to get to a professional level, but mech-drivers I think, should be looked at like fighter pilots, taking upwards of a year or more before I would let one of them off the training grounds.
At the same time, I think that the academy system in canon simply doesn't mesh with reality - it is unable to quickly replace losses in combat, which is a suicidal flaw in thinking that militaries learned not to emulate by watching the Imperial Japanese Navy - their carrier pilots were the best in the world for the fist two years after Pearl Harbor...but when losses started mounting, their training cycle could not accelerate to cover the gaps. The result was increasingly skilled enemy pilots versus increasingly green IJN pilots, with predictable results.
Personally, I can't see any rationale for not having hundreds of units like the Kittery Training Battalion from the "Warrior" series - the pilots should be basically trained infantry, then should be rammed through a mech course for a year or 18 months before being deployed to the forces...and I think the Republic should have this model in place.....
Thoughts?
