What Professional Develpoment Courses Do You Recommend?

MSG Private RallyPoint Member — Fri, 04 Apr 2014 15:08:56 -0400

Other than the standard MOS, NCOES and ASI/SQI training for professional development are there any additional courses that you would recommend for a Soldiers professional development.  For example, the <span style='font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA;'><font color="#000000">Senior Enlisted Joint Professional Military
Education (SEJPME) Course.</font></span>

Response by SSG Anthony Schoepp made Apr 4 at 2014 3:10 PM

SSG Anthony Schoepp — Fri, 04 Apr 2014 15:10:12 -0400

I never had a chance to go but I was told Battle Staff is a major one to look into. I was slotted for the school but was unable to attend due to my seizures.

Response by CW2 Private RallyPoint Member made Apr 4 at 2014 3:40 PM

CW2 Private RallyPoint Member — Fri, 04 Apr 2014 15:40:12 -0400

I'm interested in ones you can complete online and go to your ERB as well to be honest, like the JPME (which I already completed). Although that one no longer goes on the ERB like it used to.

Response by SFC William Swartz Jr made Apr 4 at 2014 3:52 PM

SFC William Swartz Jr — Fri, 04 Apr 2014 15:52:44 -0400

Battle Staff NCO Course is an excellent professional development course, if you stay in long enough, you may very well find yourself as a member of a BN or BDE staff and this course will set you up to be successful in understanding and executing as a member of the staff.

Response by MAJ Robert (Bob) Petrarca made Jul 29 at 2014 9:32 PM

MAJ Robert (Bob) Petrarca — Tue, 29 Jul 2014 21:32:26 -0400

Anything geared towards automation including the dreaded PowerPoint. Its a fact of life and its here to stay. Knowing the latest software or even a few things about hardware and networking goes a long way.

Response by MAJ Private RallyPoint Member made Jul 30 at 2014 6:13 AM

MAJ Private RallyPoint Member — Wed, 30 Jul 2014 06:13:09 -0400

I always recommend acquisitions courses/certification. It's free while you're active duty and it translates well to civilian jobs.

Response by MAJ(P) Private RallyPoint Member made Jul 31 at 2014 6:10 PM

MAJ(P) Private RallyPoint Member — Thu, 31 Jul 2014 18:10:03 -0400

As I'm out processing my current assignment, I had the opportunity to sit down with our BN CSM and discuss NCO Professional Development. In CA, like much of the Army, we in the officer corps have an extremely vested interest in our NCOs being just as educated as we are. A degree or Professional Certification can get you a lot of credibility in the inter-agency world. Also, the benefits of education to creative and outside the box thinking are invaluable in the modern operating environment.

That said, he said that the recent strategic broadening seminars that opened this year to NCOs announced in MILPER 14-045 would likely be valuable in both distinguishing an NCO from their peers as well as truly providing value to both the NCO and their unit's development. Although the selection boards for those opportunities have already met, I think they will probably be open again next FY. See the FB link below to review the FY 14 message for a list of seminars open to both NCOs and Officers.
https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?id= [login to see] 03182&story_fbid= [login to see] 68317

The CSM also mentioned language proficiency to be a big discriminator amongst the NCO Corps. There are a number of opportunities for language training available through the Joint Language University. Also, there are MOSs that have language training in their pipeline. See the following link for JLU.
https://jlu.wbtrain.com/sumtotal/jlu2.0/HOME/index.asp

Finally, the Joint Special Operations University offers a number of different seminars and courses every year open to a variety of SOF and non-SOF NCOs and officers. Each course lists it's requirements, but I've found that for both NCOs and Officers, the Rank/Grade requirements are usually just suggestions. I don't know how such courses play into NCO ratings, but they surely open up NCOs and Officers alike to a number of development opportunities. The JSOU homepage is found at https://jsou.socom.mil/Pages/Default.aspx .

I Hope these help someone out.