As the Army makes significant changes to its NCO professional education system, responsibility for training and leader development lies with both the operational unit and the institution, as well as the individual, the service’s senior enlisted leader said.

Speaking Oct. 14 during the Association of the U.S. Army’s Annual Meeting and Exposition, Sgt. Maj. of the Army Michael Weimer emphasized the importance of self-development in enlisted leaders.

“Your leadership journey is not just your professional journey; it is also your personal journey. The sooner you understand that the two are inseparable, the sooner you’ll understand that you’re developing yourself and the Army every day,” Weimer said.

At a forum on professional military education reform, Weimer and other senior enlisted leaders announced adjustments to education curriculum across the NCO life cycle, from the Basic Leader Course for junior enlisted personnel to the Sergeants Major Course.

“We had some work to do in the professional military education realm,” Weimer said. “This isn’t hypothetical—we’re moving out. These aren’t theories, we’re in execution mode.”

The Basic Leader Course will be increased from three weeks to five weeks, and the Master Leader Course from two weeks to three weeks, they said. To ensure parity in the overall education timeframe, the mid-level Advanced Leader Course and Senior Leader Course each will be reduced by more than a week.

The Sergeants Major Course-Resident Class 77, which began in August and is scheduled to graduate June 12, is undergoing “a very big curriculum change,” said Command Sgt. Maj. Raymond Harris, senior enlisted leader of the new U.S. Army Transformation and Training Command. “We’re getting rid of some topics and subject areas … everything’s going to thread through to the end state of warfighting requirements.”

The distance learning Sergeants Major Course—often used by Army Reserve and Army National Guard NCOs, but available for other eligible personnel—will decrease in length to 12 months from the current 18 to 24 months, Harris said. Additionally, all sergeants major will be required to attend a 72-hour warfighting exercise at the Operational Readiness-Mission Training Complex at Fort Bliss, Texas.

In addition, all Army components are leveraging technology and partnering with academia to enhance educational opportunities, the leaders said.

“We’re going through—sometimes with a machete and sometimes with a scalpel—and removing any non-warfighting requirements” from military education, Weimer said.

Harris said the Army’s continuous transformation initiative also applies to the professional military education system.

“Our PME has to adjust and change with the operational environment. We have to make sure we can adapt,” he said, adding that education reform is a Total Army effort. “There is no difference between [Army components] for leader development. An NCO is an NCO no matter where you serve.”

Weimer also discussed the importance of standards and discipline, noting that the Army’s Blue Book, introduced at last year’s AUSA Annual Meeting, has been downloaded roughly a half-million times.

“I’m pretty proud of that,” Weimer said. “If our soldiers don’t buy in to what we’re trying to do with discipline and standards, it doesn’t work.”

— Luc Dunn