Was going away from requiring an NCOES school to become an NCO a bad move?

Soldiers desiring to be promoted should be self-starters. This means they should take the initiative to learn everything necessary to move up to the next level. Units should ensure these prospective Soldiers have a mentor in the next higher grade bringing them along. These Soldiers should be placed as an acting team or squad leader position and mentored. These prospective “promotees” should know everything they need to know before they attend that required NCOES course. To me, nearly all professional development schools lasting 1 – 2 months (or less) are nothing more than check the box schools – same with online training. In my opinion, it is the Soldier’s, the Soldier’s peers, their chain of command and the unit’s responsibility to ensure they are promoting Soldiers who are prepared for the next higher grade, not because of completion of a school.

The Soldier’s unit (and the Army) ultimately has to live with the consequences of a Soldier being promoted – sending them to a school and then absolving themselves of responsibility for that Soldier’s poor performance if they turn out to be a dud is a failure of the unit and the chain of command. NCO professional development (or Warrant Officer/Regular Officer) schools should not be viewed as magical “wave a wand and poof – instant success for promotion" schools. They are not. They should be viewed as tools and as a basic standardized “test” (because we need something to evaluate knowledge and basic leadership skills). Think about it – How many NCO’s do you know who have attended every school out there but couldn’t lead a squad out of a wet paper bag? Again, same for Warrant Officers and Officers. I will also sadly note as an example: The Warrant Officer Corps has been polluted with many inept Warrant Officers because of the reliance of passing a school as opposed to units and the chain of command ensuring the Soldier is truly PREPARED and QUALIFIED to become a Warrant Officer. I’ve been in for 37 years and I’ve seen this (reliance on schools alone) happen way too much. Paper Soldiers do not necessarily equate to good Soldiers. End rant.

1LT Rosa, to more basically answer your question, yes, I believe Soldiers should attend a required RESIDENT professional development school prior to being promoted to the next level and I think we should do away with most of this PD online training we all have to do these days. Units must properly prepare Soldiers for promotion from within and attendance at the resident course becomes the "check the box" element. Regardless, the Soldier is fully prepared for promotion BEFORE attending the resident course.

Hopefully there's enough NCOES school slots for Guard troops, otherwise it will simply mean that we have even more SPC team leaders, and SGT squad leaders than we already do. Even so, I don't think it's a bad thing that we're going back to that system.

I am glad we are going back to it

Side rant: I remember doing SSD V as a SPC (P). It wasn't easy either.

SFC Joe Davis I totally agree with you. I saw to many times soilders get promoted any don’t understand what it really means. I agree the SQT show come back. The promotion system should change to getting tested on your job knowledge much like the airforces, this would weed out the one just rank chasing and not knowing thier MOS. To many troops are slotted in MOS slot they are not school trained for and it being held against them come promoting recommendation time. But as we know before with changes come complains about how unfair it is they everyone has to be tested about thier knowledge. The Army needs to truly change!!

I disagree. Under this model, developing leaders is a forcing function of the organization, not the institution or the Army. If leaders focused on cultivating their junior NCOs through training and leader development, we wouldn't need an automated SSD. Our NCO Corps can be stronger, but before we point the finger at an institution to develop our junior NCOs, we need to tighten up how training is conducted specifically in their development.

1LT Eric Rosa, I too attended PLDC as a young Soldier (SPC) this was a requirement to make SGT and believe it was great benefit for aspiring NCOs. During the beginnings of and up to and through the height of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Army was promoting all NCOs without the next step ( or within a year/ or the next highest NCOES only being required). This allowed us to promote deserving NCOs when NCOES was difficult to obtain, but at the same time as with all good ideas we allowed those not quite up to that level yet to join the ranks. I believe the Army is in the infancy of righting those instances and the system will fix itself. However, you as all of us had to endure some growing pains.

I have noticed that so many that are being promoted without looking forward to whether they will ever be able to progress. The tempo of deployments has made it difficult to hold Soldiers back from promotion but if they have a history of height weight or work issues they should be scrutinized. I grew u in the you dont promote until you get the appropriate education I think its the right way to weed out the non performers.

Yes, sir. I believe this has messed up the NCO Corp. It seems as if all anyone care about is making rank so they get paid. They dont care aboyt soldier development, just themselves. You can't get anyone to fo theur job, because they feel like we owe them something. Army can change with the time, but changing time doesn't mean take away discipline. We now have a softer Army, because of this.

The Ncoes courses today hardly resemble what they were back during Pldc. SSD courses are a great concept, however the check on learning and principles discussed do not corellate to the comparable rank of the course. The course assumes the responsibilities of the highest levels of joint staff some how are significant to the squad level leader. Going to and from school driven promotion systems has significant impact on national guard and reserve soldiers that aren't afforded the same access to NCOES courses.