• Military Menu                       

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Industry
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• WMD
• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

Center for Naval Leadership Revamps Leadership Courses

Navy NewsStand

Story Number: NNS060301-06
Release Date: 3/1/2006 8:43:00 AM

By Journalist 1st Class (SW/AW) John Osborne, Naval Personnel Development Command Public Affairs

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (NNS) -- The Center for Naval Leadership (CNL) introduced the new curriculum for First Line and Primary Leader Development Courses in January. The two formerly nine-day in-residence courses have been renamed and replaced with five-day courses, the Workcenter Supervisor (WCSLC) and Leading Petty Officer Leadership Courses (LPOLC), respectively.

They have also been integrated with online e-learning available through Navy Knowledge Online (NKO). This change has effectively reduced the time Sailors spend in the classroom and away from their parent commands by half, as well as saved the Navy thousands of dollars in travel costs.

CNL’s commanding officer, Capt. Jack Webb, said that saving the Navy money and the Sailors’ time is definitely a good thing and does accomplish two of the course restructuring goals, but the greatest benefits will be reaped by the Sailors who get the revamped leadership training.

“We reduced the length of the course and put some of the material taught in class into e-learning because it created a blended solution that is more efficient and more effective,” he said. “The methodology that we’re using is the adult learning principles in an active learning environment. We put the students in a scenario, and then it’s more of an active learning seminar where we engage the class and the students interact with each other.”

Webb said that Sailors will spend between 20 and 24 hours completing the online portion of the class, and he encourages students to begin their online work as soon as possible.

“The online learning complements our in-residence course and makes it a full package,” he said, noting that at the present time, completing the e-learning courses is not a pre-requisite for class attendance but is required for graduation.

“My recommendation is that every individual complete the online learning prior to coming to the course, but I understand that not everybody has the opportunity to do that," Webb added. "We strongly recommend the courses because of the value added for leadership development.”

In April, CNL is scheduled to roll out the similarly designed leading chief petty officer course and the division officer and department head leadership courses for officers.

Regardless of rank, though, the courses are open to Sailors who need the tools and skill sets to effectively manage his or her responsibilities. For example, an E-4 who is filling a workcenter supervisor billet needs to take the WCSLC, even though it has traditionally been a course for E-5s. CNL’s command master chief, CMDCM(SW/AW) David Orso, said position-based requirements such as this are essential to good leadership.

“We recognize that some junior personnel are going to perform at a higher level and they may be placed in some leadership positions above their normally assigned pay grade responsibilities,” Orso said. “We are enabling the junior folks to go to a course that is designed for a specific level of leadership because they may be required to perform at that level.”

There is also good news for Reservists, who have traditionally had a difficult time finding the time and money for leadership training. Even if the money for travel was available, it meant Reservists had to give up their two weeks of annual training, which meant their supporting command would go an entire year without seeing them. Now they can still attend their annual training and take the leadership course over their two annual training weekends.

Capt. G. Mark Hardy, commanding officer for CNL’s reserve component, said the timing for the change is perfect because reserves are being used at an increasingly higher operational tempo. There are 70 learning sites distributed throughout the U.S. to more effectively provide opportunities for reserve and active duty service members to attend a leadership development program closer to where they live and work. Reserves are assigned in 42 Reserve Centers with others close by to cover the other 28. This presented 200 reservists the opportunity to fill instructor billets, which are normally unavailable to them.

“This allows the reservists to go out to the fleet and from a leadership perspective, be indistinguishable from their active duty counterparts,” Hardy said. “CNL’s goal here is 100 percent transparency in quality and content of training, whether it’s for active duty or Reservists.”

Webb also wants Sailors to know that CNL will continually strive to meet the demand for classes, but those desiring training need to let CNL know.

“Sailors need to work with their command training officers and training petty officers to work with the CNL learning sites so that if they need additional classes they can ask for them and we will meet the fleet demand," he said. "Our goal is to provide every Sailor who needs and wants this training the opportunity to take advantage of it.”