The Maneuver Support Center of Excellence and each of its five subordinate organizations passed on-site and remote scrutiny to renew their mandatory accreditation.
Accreditation takes place every three years and is a mandatory Department of the Army credentialing program that focuses on both evaluation and standardization.
Training and Doctrine Command's Accreditation Certificates were formally presented during a Commanders Update Briefing, Feb. 10.
"This really represents some of our best work, because it is our entire team working in a patient and disciplined way over three years to make the entire accreditation a success," said Maj. Gen. Leslie Smith, MSCoE and Fort Leonard Wood commanding general.
The MSCoE Noncommissioned Officer Academy, the Army's largest, received the IOE status for the second consecutive accreditation process.
"The overall results showed marked improvement over 2010," said David Dunstedter, chief, MSCoE Quality Assurance Office.
"Although the ceremony and the two-week accreditation visit in July of 2013 were the visible events, the real hard work was back in 2012 when our five organizations completed their self-assessments," Dunstedter said.
A self assessment is a thorough written review of the key training development functions that is prepared against published Army Enterprise Accreditation Standards.
The visiting and "remote" evaluators came from the Combined Arms Center, Initial Military Training, and TRADOC headquarters. Chris Rader, acting director of TRADOC QAO, led the team of 16 on-site and 12 remote off-site evaluators.
"We looked at most everything that touches the Soldiers (in training)," Rader said. "We looked at how training and education are developed and how the students trained. We try and focus our snapshots on the outcomes of the training."
"We try and figure out through individual interviews and focus groups with students and instructors what the outcome of learning is and whether the courses are optimally designed to give the Soldiers and civilians what they came for," he added.
According to Roy Jenkins, MSCoE QAO, technology made it possible for off-site subject-matter-experts to perform their reviews from Fort Leavenworth, Kan., and Fort Eustis, Va., using telephone, video teleconferences and PC-based tools.
"It took a dedicated team of technology support personnel to enable the accreditation events," Jenkins said. "This paid big dividends, because it was the first time that TRADOC had merged both on-site and remote evaluators into a single accreditation."
In his remarks to the installation's senior leaders and principal staff at the certificate presentation, Smith expressed thanks to the hundreds of drill sergeants, trainers, training developers, training managers, and support staff from across Fort Leonard Wood who contributed to the accreditation.
The Maneuver Support Center trains more than 80,000 military and civilians each year and trains and educates service members and develops doctrine and capabilities.
A key component of the accreditation was an assessment of all three gender-integrated Initial Military Training brigades, which also included a look at the post's reception station.
The reception station is one of only five in the Army.
In addition to the accredited schools and the brigades, the post is also home to the 4th Maneuver Enhancement Brigade, a Forces Command unit that is responsible for all deployable forces at Fort Leonard Wood.
Although the accreditation is focused on Army programs and courses, Fort Leonard Wood is one of the largest inter-service locations where Marines, Airmen, Sailors, and Coast Guardsmen train side-by-side with the installation?'s Soldiers.
(Editor's note: The MSCoE Quality Assurance Office contributed to this article.)
Social Sharing