How do you start Psi Training?

[Solfosc]

I have built te Psi Labs but I don't know how to start training the soldiers.

[FreightTrainJim]

You have to wait until the end of the month. After you receive your monthly funding nations report you'll have the opportunity to enroll soldiers in psi training at every base with a psi lab, with each lab able to train ten soldiers each.

When soldiers are in psi training you can still send them on missions, but if you transfer them to a new base you'll lose that month's training for them even if the base they're going to has a psi lab. At the end of the month you'll get a report of their psi strength (the only unchangeable stat in the game, I believe...they're stuck with it) as well as their psi skill (which can change with training and use of psionic abilities during missions) and either keep training them (which will raise their psi skill further) or empty their slot for another soldier.

I build at least three psi labs at my main combat base. I'll train my main force first to reveal their psi stats. Any soldier with a psi strength of 90 or above become my main psi corps (they'll get the psi amps and will typically sit in the plane trying to mind control any alien I see on missions). Any soldier with a psi strength of less than 80 gets fired. (Depending on how many soldiers I'd have left, I may keep a few very low level psi strength soldiers to use as psi bait when fighting Sectoids and Ethereals for a few months until I've got enough of the 80+ soldiers to fill a full combat roster.)

For every month after that I selectively psi-train only the best combat soldiers. A week or so before the end of the month I'll hire a large batch of recruits (enough to completely fill my psi labs). I'll cull them based on their combat stats...I only keep the best soldiers (prizing firing accuracy, reactions, and time units) and fire the rest. I'll then hire another batch and do the same thing until I've got enough crack soldiers to fill my psi labs at the end of the month, then I'll put them all in training. At the end of the proceeding month when I can see their psi stats I'll cull them again based on the above psi strength numbers (I don't care what their psi skill is as long as their psi strength is high, psi skill can be raised very quickly on missions).

After a few months I've got an army of unstoppable psi soldiers capable of reducing the crew of an Ethereal battleship to a disorganized mob of panicked, demoralized, mind-controlled alien cattle. After that, Cydonia, here I come.

[Solfosc]

Do the soldiers have to stay physically at the base on day 1 of each month?

[FreightTrainJim]

I think they can be out on a mission when the month turns (haven't tried it), but I know they can't be on their way to the base via transfer or new hire...their name must be on the "Soldiers" list of the base menu.

[Solfosc]

Thanks!