What Will the Army University Mean for Enlisted Soldiers

The Army University is coming to you! The Army is rolling out its latest initiative to develop an institution that answers the question: How do we develop agile, adaptive, and innovative leaders of the future? One thing we have learned through the nearly fourteen years of conflict is that our enemies are as complex and as adaptive as any we have faced in our history. They are quick to leverage technology and to capitalize on our weaknesses, and they communicate with their subordinates at a much faster rate than we normally do with ours. In the past, the Army depended on equipment to gain an advantage over its enemies. As we move toward the Force 2025 and Beyond strategy, it is obvious we must invest more in our soldiers; we must tap into their potential to become more agile, more adaptive, and more innovative than our adversaries.1NCO 2020 InitiativeThe NCO 2020 initiative is a five-year project involving a survey of more than four hundred thousand soldiers regarding the Army noncommissioned officer (NCO) education system.2 The survey identified several performance gaps in NCO education. Two of those gaps are that institutional learning often comes later than needed and that systems need to be more adaptable. Perhaps The Army University's biggest challenge will be to become an agile and adaptive institution. In order to accomplish this requirement, The Army University will need to synchronize the learning objectives of all four cohorts in the Army: commissioned officers, warrant officers, enlisted soldiers, and Army civilians. Currently, these processes are performed by the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command and the U.S. Army Combined Arms Center. Synchronizing these learning objectives will ensure soldiers are trained and educated at the appropriate times in their careers.Another function of The Army University will be to develop and review the professional military education curriculum to ensure it is standardized and can be quickly exported to the Army's twenty-two proponents when and where it is needed. In the current process, a proponent can, at times, take several years to develop and implement a curriculum it is responsible for-and that curriculum often is not shared throughout the entire Army. The Army University will be the vehicle that can swiftly push and pull curriculum Army-wide, with the ability to adapt to emerging threats when soldiers need the information quickly.Education and CredentialingThe Army University will not look like any other university in the United States. As a whole, it will leverage eighty-six institutions, with more than 150,000 enrolled students, and it will partner with other universities to provide more opportunities for soldiers through degree participation programs and the credentialing of soldier skills. Several Army proponent schools have relationships with nearby academic institutions close to their campuses. Under The Army University, they will be able to expand these relationships throughout the country to provide more flexibility to soldiers as they pursue higher education and degree completion.Credentialing is a term used to identify personnel who have established their qualifications as licensed professionals. Currently, there are more than five thousand organizations that credential people in disciplines ranging from emergency medical technician to carpenter. Most of these credentialing organizations can legally certify soldiers in a state or a region in their specialties. The Army University will partner with these organizations to align them universally and to help soldiers who graduate from a military technical school acquire the recognition for their skills-as they deserve-through licensing.Army PolicyAffecting policy can be one of the most daunting tasks in the Army. Generally speaking, changes are frequently conveyed through forums and meetings. In addition to providing a clearer link to decision makers through the forums and meetings, The Army University will have the voice of twenty-two proponents, eighty-six schools, and 450,000 soldiers as it works to make positive changes for the soldiers' and Army's benefit. …