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Navy Launches Career Guide for Divers

Navy NewsStand

Story Number: NNS090311-21
Release Date: 3/11/2009 11:08:00 PM

By Joy Samsel, Naval Education and Training Command

PENSACOLA, Fla. (NNS) -- The Navy dive community now has a roadmap to help enlisted Sailors succeed in their careers with the launch of a new career tool available on Navy Knowledge Online (NKO).

The Learning and Development Roadmaps (LaDR – pronounced ladder) are being developed by the staffs at the learning centers charged with providing career learning and development for each Navy rating. The diver roadmap was developed by the staff at the Center for Explosive Ordnance Disposal and Diving in Panama City, Fla.

"Today's Sailor can find a written path to success," said Navy Diver Hugh "Sandy" Bell, command master chief at the Naval Diving and Salvage Training Center, Panama City, Fla.

"This path is located at their finger tips on Navy Knowledge Online. There are no questions as to what courses are required and what courses are suggested to better oneself. No questions as to what type of duty to take or when to attend professional development school."

In 2007, Naval Education and Training Command was tasked by the Chief of Naval Personnel to develop an Enlisted Education Strategy. The result is the Enlisted Learning and Development Strategy (ELDS), which includes the career roadmaps.

The first rating career roadmaps included legalmen (LN), mass communication specialists (MC), and nonrated Sailors in the Surface Professional Apprenticeship Career Tracks program (S-PACT)," explained ELDS Core Team Co-Leader Master Chief Petty Officer Tom Smith, an electronics technician and the enlisted learning and development program coordinator for Naval Education and Training Command (NETC).

"Sailors can find their roadmap to success on Navy Knowledge Online (NKO), and I recommend every Sailor and their supervisors use the roadmap. It is a great mentoring and counseling tool."

The roadmap is for enlisted Sailors to refer to throughout their Navy career and progresses to the rank of master chief.

"It provides detailed information on training and advanced education opportunities," said Smith. "The roadmap is a visual guide to track their career and helps the Navy get the right Sailor, with the right training, in the right job, at the right time."

"Deckplate leadership and mentoring is essential in the Navy," said Master Chief Navy Counselor Brett Rowell, NETC Force Retention. Rowell is also the ELDS team co-leader with Smith.

"The roadmap is a great tool for supervisors to use during mentoring sessions and career development boards providing Sailors feedback on what learning and development programs are available to them.

The career roadmap includes training from the sailorization process at Recruit Training Command (RTC), basic technical training, advance technical training and Navy Professional Military Education (NPME). It also includes advanced education opportunities through the Navy College Office, as well as programs at the Naval Post Graduate School and the Naval War College. Professional certifications are part of the LaDR through Navy Credentialing Opportunities Online (Navy COOL). For example, with Navy COOL a Navy diver (ND) can receive civilian certifications from the Association of Diving Contractors International (ADCI), the National Association of Underwater Instructors (NAUI) or the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, to name just a few.

The goal is to have LaDRs for all ratings on NKO by April 2010.

ELDS will not necessarily create new programs but provides visibility to current Navy programs. It is an umbrella under the learning and development programs fall that enlisted Sailors need access to for a successful career. The LaDR provides the visual of that umbrella, giving Sailors a checklist to see where they are, and where they need to be.

"Gone are the days where Navy divers gaze over a cap rail wondering what their next duty station will be," explained Bell. "Where DV after your rate really stood for 'duties vary', and where no one really knew what it takes to make chief or to make master diver.

"With this tool, the Sailor who is looking for answers, and the chief who is giving guidance is not guessing; they both can see what needs to be done.

"The ND roadmap should not be something that is looked at once and forgotten; instead it should be used as a living tool that can guide today's Navy diver on to the path of success and be a guide for the Navy divers of tomorrow."

For more news from Naval Education and Training Command, visit www.navy.mil/local/cnet/.