KEESLER AIR FORCE BASE, Miss. -- Air Education and Training Command officials conducted an occupational competency seminar covering two career fields – command and control battle management operations, Air Force specialty code 1C5X1, and command and control operations, AFSC 1C3X1, here, March 18-21.
Airmen and Guardians attend technical training to learn the skills needed to perform in their career field specialties and the new competency-based learning models better equip students as they prepare to operate in an Agile Combat Employment environment.
“We’ve come here to identify the necessary key responsibilities, tasks, work outputs and tools for optimal job performance to ensure Airmen operate in their Air Force careers with success,” said Maj. Winnie Odhiambo, AETC medical competencies chief. “We’re also discussing what observable behaviors relate to the Airmen’s competency levels so we can use them as a gauge of their progress in gaining expertise within their occupations.”
Career field managers, major command functional managers and subject matter experts also attended the seminar to formulate the transformations in technical training necessary to support students in the learning process.
“Today, 1C3X1 apprentice students scramble to take notes while listening to lectures,” said Garcia. “We’re evolving the classroom to change that by bringing electronic training aids to our students' fingertips to connect them to an environment where learning occurs anywhere on campus. Simulators in dorms will help students have a ‘near-real’ console that mirrors the experience they would receive in the classroom and brings after-hours learning to a whole new level, actualizing our vision of utilizing our students’ entire ecosystem.”
The competency study will expand outside of these first two career fields to other specialties in the Air Force. As the strategic landscape is changing, so are the requirements for Airmen to graduate and serve as mission-ready Airmen.
“We’re stepping away from the legacy training approaches where instructors read slides to students, and stepping into student-centered learning,” said Garcia. “By changing the academic environment, we’re providing our students the road map to become independent lifelong learners and a force of future-ready, critically thinking warfighters who will be steering the course for great power competition.”