“The road to knowledge is still under construction.”
– Audrey Gray, professor at the University of Saskatchewan Looking back, looking forward
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o official doctrine had ever been written for the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) training and education system. So, in a spirit of collabora-tion with the Joint Doctrine Branch, Military Personnel Generation (MILPERSGEN) wasmandated to develop a Canadian Forces Joint Publication (CFJP) on individual training and education doctrine cover-ing the entire CAF. The Doctrine and Directives – Individual Training and Education section, which was tasked with writ-ing the publication, has been workwrit-ing on it almost exclusively since June of this year.
For the past thirty years, CAF training and education personnel have had two successive sets of manuals to guide them:
the Canadian Forces Individual Training System 9000 series, and the Canadian Forces Individual Training and Education by Julie Maillé and Louise Baillargeon
DND/MILPERSGEN Policy & Doctrine
V IEWS AND O PINIONS
System (CFITES) 9050 series. The content of those publications was certainly useful. However, there was an ever more pressing need to support it with a structured, current, detailed official doc-trine explaining the training and education system. It had become imperative to refresh some dated concepts, and to introduce new ways to design and deliver training and education.
The CFITES manuals in use today cover various levels of doctrine, from strategy to tactics. The generic approach and the scope of CFITES itself led to inconsistencies in the application of the system, and, in institutional design and concepts, and ways of doing things emerged that were diametrically opposed. The new doctrine on the subject is intended to consolidate the activi-ties conducted across the CAF, and to harmonize them with the concepts developed by our allied partners. This doctrine sets the parameters guiding the activities of CFITES and the decisions associated with them.
Need and vision
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n order to carry out its mandate, the CAF engages in three large interdependent spheres of activity: operations, recruit-ment/selection, and training and education. Military Personnel Command (MILPERSCOM), through MILPERSGEN, drives the individual training and education activities, whose purpose is to prepare CAF members intellectually and professionally for the operations of today and tomorrow. MILPERSGEN’s mis-sion is to guide the personnel generation system and to enable it to maintain the specificity of the profession of arms. In order to accomplish these missions, it establishes the parameters ofthe professional development system and ensures support for learning throughout CAF members’ lives, in order to maximize operational success. The joint doctrine on training and educa-tion was designed to direct the planning and delivery of learning activities. The doctrine describes the fundamental principles upon which the CAF relies in order to achieve the objectives set by the Government of Canada regarding training and education.
To meet the need for doctrine, in 2012, MILPERSGEN proposed that a new, three-part structure be adopted: policies, doctrine, and tactics, techniques and procedures (TTPs). The purpose of this approach was to establish the conceptual founda-tions of the training and education system. The doctrine related to the subject was supposed to describe the connections between the parts of the system in order to develop its principles, and to provide a framework within which to apply them in the CAF. The new series of doctrine publications will take the following form:
CFJP 7.0 will offer an overview of the entire training and education system, Volume 7.1 will cover individual training and education, Volume 7.2 will describe joint collective training, and Volume 7.3 will focus upon training leaders. All this will be supported by a series of TTPs covering individual training and education that will serve as concrete guides to applying the processes of development, conduct, and management of CFITES.
Doctrine: The cornerstone of the learning organization
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octrine presents concepts and reflections that give direction to instructors and educators. The DefenceDND photo UR01-2016-0708-008/Leading Seaman Sergej Krivenko
Naval officer doing on-board navigational calculations enroute to Pearl Harbor for Exercise Rimpac 16, 27 June 2016.
Terminology Bank defines doctrine as, “…fundamental principles by which the military forces guide their actions in support of objectives. It is authoritative but requires judge-ment in application.” Based as it is upon lessons learned and upon projections of future trends (research and development), military doctrine is the link between the organization and the employment of military forces. Writing doctrine on individual training and education was a process strewn with obstacles.
First, we had to identify the foundations of CFITES, based upon the Canada First Defence Strategy, which states that Canadians will be able to count on “…a first-class and modern military that is well trained, well equipped and ready,” and one that possesses the basic capabilities and flexibility required to maintain naval, land, air, and special forces that are versatile and combat-ready. Developing doctrine is necessarily col-laborative. This proved to be an energizing force, but it also slowed down the work at times, since some of the many ideas suggested were contradictory. Selecting the important points was a considerable challenge, as the needs of all stakeholders had to be taken into consideration. In addition, training and education doctrine is based upon a development cycle influ-enced by various factors, including research and development and lessons learned. It therefore had to be adaptable in order to deal with discoveries, emerging concepts, and new knowledge, while being simple enough to encompass the feedback obtained on all aspects of training and education.
“The key to being a learning organization is the development and inculcation of a body of unifying doctrine that leads the development of the CF at large through our capability development, professional development and training regimens.”1 Developing a solid doctrine with respect to training and education required us to question the traditional concepts, and to organize the established practices.
One publication for all
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he purpose of training is to instil the knowledge, skills, and attitudes required to carry out specific tasks, while that of education is to lay down a base of knowledge and intellectual skills that can support the learner in interpreting information effectively and exercising judgment. Because education in civil-ian and military institutions has evolved, professional soldiers, sailors, airmen, and airwomen today have a better understanding of the military organization and its place in the current and future security environments. For this reason, training and education are key elements in the CAF’s operational success. Training activi-ties enable the CAF organizations and their members to enhance their know-how, their effectiveness, and their efficiency. On the one hand, the organization is responsible for providing learning opportunities. On the other, learners are responsible for fully engaging in the learning activities and in making the most of them.Training and education are part of the concept of lifelong learning for military personnel. This concept is related to the acqui-sition of knowledge, skills, and attitudes in various contexts – for example, through individual and collective training activities using formal, non-formal, and informal methods. Learning takes place on a continuum that varies, depending upon each learner’s path.
Whether it is formal, non-formal, or informal, learning has direct impacts upon personal and professional development. The CAF’s basic approach, with both instructor-led courses and independent learning, is to focus upon actively engaging learners in the learn-ing process, because the best way of learnlearn-ing is through targeted, guided intellectual or physical activities. Instructional design-ers and instructors must vary the training methods and increase learners’ level of activity. Performance-oriented training and educa-tion means that all related activities must be directed at preparing CAF members to meet operational requirements, and to achieve departmental performance objectives.
Soldiers studying an Indirect Fire Trainer at Hohenfels, Germany, as part of Operation Reassurance, 13 January 2016.
DND photo RP001-2016-0002-0014/Corporal Nathan Moulton