Change is one constant for FA53 officer training

Information Technology training--whether it's in the commercial world or in the Army schoolhouse--is an ever-changing endeavor. Moore's Law--first stated in 1965--simply notes we can generally await the number of transistors upon an integrated circuit to approximately double each two years. Over time, this law became an 18-month benchmark to exhibit the rapid advancement of computing and networking power. Moore's Law also underscored the challenges facing Army IT training, particularly for the information a whole s management officers in Functional Area 53

For years, greatest in quantity of the FA 53 officers received initial IT training during the a whole s Automation Course at the U Army's Computer Science institute at Fort Gordon, Ga. The training they received during the SAC course consisted of module generally supporting critical tasks for officers assigned to Table of Distribution and Allowances units. This mirrored the Army's needs and the relatively limited penetration of IT into tactical echelons of the Army. As of that kind the Army assigned approximately 80 percent of FA 53 officers to TDA units at corps and higher. With the rapid evolution of commercial IT, the Army's growing ne for information, transformation, and the restructuring of the Army into modular forces, IT became pervasive quite through all echelons of the force.

In reply to these developments, the SAC course was discontinued and sum of two units more comprehensive courses took its place--the 10-week Information a whole s Operations Leveler and Information combination of parts to form a wholes Manager Courses are now the requisite resident training for FA 53 officers.

Around this same time, the CS became the institute of Information Technology and assumed a greater part in training Army leaders. The SIT is now the Army's IT center of superiority responsible for training IT controls to all Signal Regiment leaders.

As the Army's premier IT training gymnasium the SIT prides itself upon adapting to the Army's urgencys and to changes in IT.

combination of parts to form a wholes approach to training within the SIT

The Army's Training and Doctrine Command uses a methodical and deliberate a whole s Approach to Training process as described in TRADOC Regulation 350-70 As its name states, SAT is a systematic, spiral approach to making collective, individual, and self-development training decisions for the Army. SAT determines the ne for training, who achieves the training; what wartime tasks are critical; when, where, and in what manner the training takes place; and determines the training resources required. It is a dynamic proces that includes five phases of SAT--analysis, design, disentanglement implementation, and evaluation. Unlike our rapidly changing IT world, these phases require a significant amount of time to implement suitably Sometimes all five phases can take up to five years to complete

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Fortunately, SAT is a fluid proces and not a one-time circumstance A dynamic process, it helps us define and refine our training. individual of the most-important aspects of the SAT proces is the Critical Task Site Selection Board. The SIT directions CTSSBs approximately once every sum of two units years for the Soldiers it trains. The SIT newly conducted a CTSSB for FA 53 officers and has scheduled the implementation of the fresh course redesign for June 2006 Many of the training tasks in the novel ISOL and ISM courses will center upon Joint Network Node and Information Dissemination Management tasks. Given the changes in unit constitutions equipment, and software, these tasks will better prepare FA 53 officers for assignments at different echelons within the Army. The SIT is also de-emphasizing traditional FA 53 topics of that kind as Visual Basic programming to make latitude for newer more relevant tasks.

Modular Army affects FA 53 training

The modularity universal caused major changes in the Signal Regiment. Understanding those changes enabled the SIT to adjust the IT training focus to brigade- and division-level operations from Echelons Above Corps operations. As the Army requires more captain and major FA 53 in the Brigade Combat Teams and divisions, the focus for the institutional training base will accommodate this novel reality.

Due to the Army's ne for more FA 53 captains and majors in the brigades and divisions, the Army is accessing more officers into the FA 53 career field. In December 2005 there were solitary 23 FA 53 captains assigned in the Army. That showed an 11 percent fill rate since there are 203 FA 53 captain positions authorized. In addition, that authorization number for captains is likely to increase beneath modularity. Like our civilian matchs the demand for IT professionals is a expansion business in the Army.

Unfortunately, invest has not kept up with demand. The publicly low number of FA 53 captains is primarily owed to the Career Field Designation proces and the timelines for accessing into FA 53 and other functional areas. Before FY06 the Army generally accessed officers into their functional areas around the 10th year of service.

lately the DA G1 approved a plan to administration a limited CFD for officers in their fourth YO starting with Year collection 2002. To support this plan, the HRC guidanceed a board in December 2005 and picked 40 new FA 53 captains from YG 2002 to add to the Army's bench. A replete CFD for officers in their YO will begin in September 2006 with YG 1999 Thereafter, these seventh YO CFD boards will be directioned annually for subsequent YGs.