ARLINGTON, Va. - The key to professional military education and career progression is self-development, the senior Army National Guard's senior enlisted leader told participants in the 2010 Association of the U.S. Army annual meeting here Oct. 25.
"We all have goals, and we're all determined in a different way on how we're going to achieve those goals," said Command Sgt. Maj. Richard J. Burch. "But you have to have a realistic plan to help you get everything you can out of your military career."
Command Chief Master Sgt. Denise Jelinski-Hall, the senior enlisted advisor to the chief of the National Guard Bureau also spoke to the importance of grooming the younger troops through professional military education.
“You all have achieved a level of success throughout your careers … and it’s it through that training, education and experience that you have acquired the skills that you have … to share with the soldiers you meet,” she said.
It is your responsibility to show the importance of professional military education to the junior service members, said Jelinski-Hall. It’s not second nature to some of our troops, and we need to talk to them about where it fits into their career-cycle.
“PME is part of who we are as service members,” she said. “We must continue that professional development as we go through the various stages of our careers.”
Burch expanded on how professional military education fits into career progression.
“The educational institutions and venues provide us with the basics of information that we take back,” he said. “Then in an operational mode, we learn how to apply what we’ve been taught in the institutions, so PME is the base-line for growth in professional endeavors.”
He included the solider is the focus of the development, with the key component of engineering their career plan.
You need to give a self assessment and analyze not only their strength and weaknesses but how they react to specific situations, said Burch.
There are many things in the Army’s culture that can and do impact leader development, but assessment and feedback are two of the key components to any program in the Army.
“To learn from those opportunities, is to better yourself,” he said.