{"id":239702,"date":"2024-07-29T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-07-29T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=239702"},"modified":"2024-07-29T21:14:56","modified_gmt":"2024-07-29T21:14:56","slug":"enlisted-foundations-courses-ready-for-airmen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=239702","title":{"rendered":"Enlisted Foundations courses ready for Airmen"},"content":{"rendered":"
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MAXWELL AIR FORCE BASE, Ala. (AFNS) — \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Thomas N. Barnes Center for Enlisted Education<\/strong><\/a>\u2019s Foundations curriculum achieved full operational capability July 19, after nine months of course testing and training.<\/p>\n

The last Barnes Center mobile training team departed Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base New Orleans<\/strong><\/a> after graduating 50 Louisiana Air National Guard<\/strong><\/a> Airmen from Airmanship 300, 500 and 700 courses. Since November 2023, 34 teams trained 1,386 total force Airmen.
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\u201cThese Foundations<\/strong><\/a> courses were developed, tested and implemented in record time,\u201d said Col. Damian Schlussel, Barnes Center commander. \u201cWhat would normally take a few years, we have done in months. I am so proud of our staff and impressed with the work our curriculum developers and instructors have accomplished.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a letter<\/strong><\/a> to the force on Sept. 18, 2023, then-Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. CQ Brown, Jr.<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0and then-Chief Master Sgt. of the Air Force Joanne S. Bass<\/strong><\/a>,<\/strong> stated that Foundations courses will replace base-level professional enhancement seminars beginning in October 2023 and become prerequisite courses for enlisted professional military education starting in late 2024.<\/p>\n

The Barnes Center, in conjunction with development advisors, major command functional managers and Headquarters Air Force, Force Development, developed the foundations courses as part of the Enlisted Airmanship Continuum<\/strong><\/a>, outlined in the same letter to the force. The continuum focuses on enhancing the professional military education and development of total force enlisted Airmen and fill the gaps between legacy professional military education schools such as Airman Leadership School and the Noncommissioned Officer Academy.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome Airmen go five or six years between PME courses, which is way too long,\u201d Schlussel said. \u201cThese courses close that developmental gap by delivering the right content at the right time in an Airman\u2019s career.\u201d<\/p>\n

The BCEE Foundations curriculum team, along with 56 instructors from Airey, Sheppard and Mathies NCO academies, invested a collective 27,720 hours over 90 consecutive days to developing and refining course content between July and September of 2023.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe started in July and were told to focus on the 500-level only, with a two-year timeframe,\u201d said Tech. Sgt. Kate Hytinen, Barnes Center Foundations noncommissioned officer in charge. \u201cA few days later, we learned we needed to develop 300-, 500-, and 700-level content by September to ensure the courses would roll out at the same time and to support reoptimizing the Air Force in an era of Great Power Competition<\/strong><\/a>. It was all-hands-on-deck.\u201d
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The team also hosted a 10-day seminar in October 2023, connecting 48 subject matter experts from all the major commands for a comprehensive course curriculum review. The seminar resulted in 53 complete lesson plans prior to initial operational capability testing, which ran from November 2023 to February 2024.<\/p>\n

During IOC, 30 NCO Academy instructors formed mobile training teams for 12 locations. The teams taught 30 classes but were also responsible for evaluating curriculum and gathering course feedback from the 352 graduates.<\/p>\n

During FOC, March to July 2024, 24 NCO Academy instructors continued to deliver course content and gather feedback at 22 locations, but also began training developmental advisors and equivalent Foundations instructors to facilitate base-level training across the force. The FOC training teams graduated 693 Airmen from 82 locations around the world and trained 341 developmental advisors or equivalent personnel.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur mission was clear and concise, and our team had support from the top down,\u201d Hytinen said. \u201cIt was a lot of long days, weekends and late nights for the team, but we were able to do it, and do it well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Moving forward, MAJCOMs [major commands] will incorporate the five-day Foundations courses into their base\u2019s educational catalogs. Base developmental advisors will lead and manage the courses. The Barnes Center will continue to provide 80% of the course content, while MAJCOMs and wings provide the remaining 20%.<\/p>\n

In a July 12, 2024, memorandum<\/strong><\/a> to all MAJCOM manpower and personnel directorates, Crystal L. Moore<\/strong><\/a>, Headquarters Air Force, Force Development director, outlined the official policy and procedural guidance to implement the Enlisted Airmanship Continuum Foundations Courses, making Airmanship 300, 500 and 700 official EPME prerequisites beginning Dec. 31, 2025.<\/p>\n

Hytinen will soon leave the Barnes Center, as she was selected to be a warrant officer instructor for the Warrant Officer Training School<\/strong><\/a>, soon to open<\/a><\/strong> on Maxwell AFB. She credits her experiences in standing up the Foundations courses as the reason for her selection. \u201cI\u2019ve learned so much and it has given me more confidence in my abilities,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

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U.S. Air Force Logo<\/title><\/p><\/div>\n<\/section><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>MAXWELL AIR FORCE BASE, Ala. (AFNS) — \u00a0 The Thomas N. Barnes Center for Enlisted Education\u2019s Foundations curriculum achieved full operational capability July 19, after nine months of course testing and training. The last Barnes Center mobile training team departed Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base New Orleans after graduating 50 Louisiana Air National Guard […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":239704,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-239702","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239702","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=239702"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239702\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":239705,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239702\/revisions\/239705"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/239704"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=239702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=239702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=239702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}