KEESLER AIR FORCE BASE, Miss -- Under Second Air Force, the Air Force Career Development Academy is modernizing the way Airmen and Guardians continue to learn later in their careers by redesigning how they structure career development courses (CDCs).
While the Numbered Air Force has been developing 6th-generation learning environments for initial skills training students, they also apply the same principles of flexible learning pathways to ensure that quality training doesn’t end after tech school graduation.
“Our goal is to meet our operational Airmen and Guardians where they are in the modern era,” said Monica Garcia, AFCDA curriculum development branch chief. “We aim to provide training in a way that delivers information faster, in multiple learning styles, and is accessible and is applicable to different environments.”
The newly formatted CDCs for Airmen and Guardians move away from written texts by transitioning to interactive online training. Depending on the career field, the new CDCs can include real-life scenarios, videos, simulations, and elements that require critical thinking and decision making.
Learning Engineers, the AFCDA architects behind these developments, work simultaneously with subject matter experts to keep CDCs relevant to the needs of some of the Air Force’s more rapidly changing career fields.
Ultimately, Second Air Force continues to focus on the goal of incorporating the best available methodologies and technologies to provide Airman-focused learning to enhance both knowledge and retention.
“Today’s Airmen don’t learn the same way you and I did,” said Maj. Gen. Michele Edmondson, Second Air Force commander. “Their minds work differently; they are digitally literate and dependent. We recognize that we can build enduring advantages in our Airmen by capitalizing on how they learn. It will also help retain the best of America and keep pace in an era of Great Power Competition, we must modernize the way we deliver training today.”