Gary Smith – Regional Finalist for QTA Awards 2020

UNE Partnerships has been working closely with the Army Logistic Training Centre and the Army School of Logistic Operations to help to reimagine their continuum of senior soldier courses.

Training Transformation intends to provide the Australian Army with a modern framework for training delivery, built across three pillars:

1. Agility – A training system that is agile will enable Army’s people and teams to quickly transition between missions and environments. As experience is gained and ideas are contested, training design must be able to easily and rapidly evolve. Training delivery mechanisms must be adaptable to the situation and the required learning outcomes.
2. Simplicity – A training system that is simple in its processes, structures and policies will promote freedom of action and the ability to rapidly change in readiness for the challenges of Accelerated Warfare.
3. Capacity – A training system that builds capacity will enable Army to generate more teams for more tasks, in more domains and environments, more often. It should do this more effectively, efficiently and safely.

Lieutenant Colonel Brendan Robinson believes this is a bold and decisive initiative for the Army School of Logistic Operations;

“By September 2020, we will have completely modernised the Subject 2 for Corporal, Sergeant and Warrant Officer suite of logistic courses. This project is ambitious in combining multiple corps-specific learning management plans into two CSS Sergeant and Warrant Officer learning frameworks. Importantly, it seeks to emphasise the integration of corps-specific logistic outputs to generate operational logistic effects. For example, this could see the creation of catering and personnel tracking learning modules and the absorption of road movement planning delivered on the RACT Subject 4 course into the new Subject 2 Sergeant course. This project also anticipates the removal of overly specific training delivered as generalist career training on other courses. Finally, it looks to align Army logistics training with Workforce 2028 plans to create the workforce flexibility required for a future ready force. The guiding design principles for this project are to simplify learning design, make learning more accessible and to enable continuous learning with reduced residential demands.

These innovations are critical to creating the flexibility and scalability necessary to train our current and future workforce. Furthermore, the tools now in use at ASLO are enabling better and faster decision-making. This directly serves our school mission: to train and develop Army’s logistics officers and senior soldiers to command or support joint land force operations.”

This project builds on more than a decade of partnership with UNE Partnerships and the Australian Government Department of Defence and other Commonwealth Government agencies to support contemporary learning design and development.

This article is derived from a recent blog post from LTCOL Brendan Robinson:

• https://cove.army.gov.au/article/army-school-logistics-operations-modernisation

If you would like to learn more about how UNE Partnerships can support your business to more effectively achieve your organisational objectives, then please contact our Partnerships team:

• Kathryn Hogan – Partnerships Manager
  kathryn.hogan@unep.edu.au

Biography

Brendan Robinson

Brendan Robinson is a graduate of the UK Command and Staff College and the Royal Military College Duntroon. Trained as a mechanical engineer at the Australian Defence Force Academy, he has served with armoured, infantry and logistics units and has deployed twice. He is the current Commanding Officer & Chief Instructor of the Army School of Logistic Operations. He maintains an interest in good writing, world affairs and Army modernisation.

Brendan has also written:

• Book Review: Team of Teams – New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World on Grounded Curiosity.
• Lowy Institute Address: America’s Enduring Interests in the Indo-Asia-Pacific with Admiral Harry Harris, Commander US Pacific Command – 14 Dec 2016. On the Land Power Forum.
• To what extent should the UK’s Armed Forces once again be prepared to operate routinely east of Suez? in the Indo Pacific Strat Digest Summer 2016 edition.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the position of the Australian Army, the Department of Defence or the Australian Government.