Kinection meets with NCO academies
Thursday, September 24th, 2009By Ed Lavieri
The Army’s Professional Military Education (PME) training pipelines offer us a way to reach the entire service with training in cross-cultural communication, regional expertise, and language.
To find out more about how to reach enlisted soldiers through the PME system, we talked with the Commandants and Command Sergeants Major of several NCO academies. This gave us useful insights into the training and curriculum development processes.
We also talked with the Dean of Academics at the U.S. Army Sergeants Major Academy (USASMA), which is responsible for the common core of the enlisted PME curriculum. This discussion helped us understand the enlisted training system as well as policies and procedures that affect training.
We’re optimistic about working with the USASMA in the future.
Fort Riley soldiers tell us about their cross-cultural needs
Thursday, August 13th, 2009By Ed Lavieri
Cathy, Brian, and I took a trip to Fort Riley this month for data collection. We met with over 60 soldiers ranging from corporals to LT colonels. Our sessions consisted of small group question and answers. During our visit, we were provided insights into their recent deployment experiences including cultural perspectives, roles, duties, and tasks requiring cross-culture competencies, and training preferences.
This data collection effort mirrored our previous trips to Fort Carson and Fort Leonard Wood. At Fort Riley, we received some key insights regarding the processing time at Kuwait for Soldiers headed to Iraq and Afghanistan. Additional eye-openers for us included the roles the Chaplain Corps, cultural liaisons, and interpreters play with respect to language and culture.
It was a positive experience talking with the men and women at Fort Riley. We appreciate their taking the time to provide us with their insights, perspectives, and opinions.
Kinection staff now certified as ethical researchers through CITI
Tuesday, July 28th, 2009By Brian Knoll
The Kinection team completed Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative (CITI) certification training this month. CITI provides education that ensures that researchers know how to treat research subjects ethically.
CITI training covers protection of human research subjects, good clinical practice, health information privacy and security, and responsible conduct for researchers.
Our certification is part of our commitment to the ethical research that guides the design of our tools.
Interviews at Fort Carson highlight the importance of on-the-job training
Tuesday, May 19th, 2009By Ed Lavieri
Most of our team recently visited soldiers at Fort Carson. One of their big takeaways was the Army’s heavy reliance on on-the-job training (OJT).
Formalized schoolhouse training establishes a foundation that local OJT builds upon. Having served 25 years of active duty in the Navy, I’m a firm believer in the power of OJT and was encouraged to hear that our entire team has embraced its importance.
On-the-job training can be tailored at the unit level and lets commanders control qualifications to create highly capable military units. The adage “We train the way we fight” illustrates how relevant training has to be.
The OJT process strengthens all our military branches. Junior personnel are trained by their supervisors to perform their duties and carry out the responsibilities assigned to them.
NCOs conduct this training for their personnel’s current roles as well as their future roles, since one day these junior personnel will become NCOs.
