The Civilian Education System Advanced Course is coming to Redstone Arsenal in March as a part of the Army Management Staff College's pilot Mobile Education Training. The MET is an initiative to alleviate the wait list for the Advanced Course while saving the Army money in travel expenses.
The Advanced Course is the final training piece in the CES, rounding out the Foundation, Basic, and Intermediate courses. The course typically requires one week of distance learning followed by four weeks in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. The local course will replace the Fort Leavenworth portion, allowing 64 civilians to complete the required training at Redstone Arsenal.
"This is going to offer us the opportunity to put 64 people through the course without the travel expenses or duty expenses, which will provide significant savings to the Army of more than $100,000," Army Materiel Command's Deputy Chief of Staff for Personnel Bill Marriott said.
Along with cost saving, there are great personal advantages to having the class local, said Marriott.
"It will give single moms and other employees who can't easily travel the chance to participate in the training that they otherwise couldn't do," said Marriott.
Every year about 1,000 employees complete the Advanced Course. More than 200 Redstone Arsenal civilian employees in the ranks of GS 13-15 are currently on the waiting list for the course. The wait can take as long as two years.
"We have 5,000 Army civilians in the highest grades here at Redstone, so to be able to train 64 of them at one time is a great accomplishment and very cost effective," said Marriott who noted that about 25 percent of all Army civilians work for AMC. "The realities of today's budget constraints are that we need to be more efficient. Utilizing the resources we already have at Redstone is a great example of that."
Marriott said that training, along with education and experience, formed the triad of a well-rounded employee.
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