MAXWELL AIR FORCE BASE, Ala. -- The Thomas N. Barnes Center for Enlisted Education is currently working to revise the Airman Leadership School to better prepare Airmen for future duties.
Airman Leadership School is the first level of enlisted professional military education and required to become a non-commissioned officer.
The new curriculum will focus on four distinct areas: Leadership, Air Force Mission, Air Force Culture and Problem Solving.
The new areas will incorporate similar lessons being taught at ALS, however; the new curriculum will focus on having a strategic impact on the students rather than teaching a broad spectrum of informational topics. It will include a simulation similar to the leadership labs at the NCO and Senior NCO levels of PME.
“Our Airmen are very talented, they’re very smart, and we think they are capable of doing more than what we are currently educating them on,” said Master Sgt. Anthony Sansone, ALS Program Director. “We trust our young Airmen and we know they have the ability to do things we never thought they could.”
With the ever changing war front, Chief Master Sgt. Jeffrey Bankoske, Chief Academic Affairs, stressed the importance of teaching new Airmen how to be innovative leaders sooner rather than later.
“We train for the known, we educate for the unknown,” he said.
The new program is undergoing revisions, but beta testing for the new course is scheduled to begin here as early as this spring or summer.
The new course is expected to be implemented later this year; however, Sansone said the team is focused on rolling out the course correctly to ensure their future students will be proud of completing the course and what they learned.