JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO-RANDOLPH, Texas – A behind the scenes look at breaking long-held, industrial age paradigms is the theme of episode nine of "Developing Mach-21 Airmen," Air Education and Training Command's professional development podcast series, released May 13.
In the episode, James Rumfelt from the 82nd Training Wing public affairs team sits down with two senior NCO’s from the 365th Training Squadron at Sheppard Air Force Base, Texas, Master Sgt. Brion Kennedy, the avionics fundamentals apprentice course flight chief, and Master Sgt. James Churchill, heavy avionics apprentice course flight chief, to discuss how the squadron and schoolhouses were able to bust the long-held, industrial age paradigms of the Air Force controls learning, time is the constant and that we teach Airmen just how to do a job.
When presented with an opportunity to reimagine what training looks like, the 365th TRS revised their curriculum, resulting in an Air National Guard Airman graduating from both the avionics fundamentals and Electronic Warfare courses in less than a month (which typically takes a new accession around five months normally).
The professional development podcasts are designed to help communicate and inform Total Force Airmen across the globe on relevant, timely topics related to the recruiting, training, education and development fields and can be listened to on the government network on the AETC website, or via mobile application as well as on Apple Podcasts (iTunes). For Android or Google mobile users, the podcast can be found on their favorite third-party podcast phone application.
Future episodes are set to cover a wide range of topics, including a look at where the learning environment is heading towards in the year 2030; joint civil engineering technical training at Sheppard AFB; how the cadre of the Security Forces Academy integrated officer and enlisted training within the career field; and much more.