Trained units and competent leaders have always been, and remain, critical elements of Army operational success. The Army Training and Leader Development (ATLD) system, as outlined in AR 350-1,Army Training and Leader Development,is the way it develops these individual and collective competencies.

Training and leader development are different but related functions. Training is defined as

an organized, structured process based on sound principles of learning designed to increase the capability of individuals or units to perform specified tasks or skills. Training increases the ability to perform in known situations with emphasis on competency, physical and mental skills, knowledge...

This chapter describes the ALC’s role in the Army’s training and leader development strategies and its current challenges. It begins by describing the ALC and the benefits it provides different audiences, and then discusses how it fits into the ARFORGEN cycle and the difficulties the cycle creates for getting soldiers to and through ALC. It next describes the steps the Army has taken to transform ALC so that it better meets the needs of the Army and the soldiers who attend it. It concludes with a discussion of other potentially beneficial ALC changes.

AR 350-1 describes the role of the...

In this chapter, we examine the processes for management and execution of ALC and present the findings and conclusions we drew from this examination. While we focus on Army-level decisions and the information needed to support making them, we do this from the perspective of execution of ALC instruction with regard to effective use of resources and benefit to operational force readiness.¹

ALC management processes are complex. To organize our effort, we first identified the major management activities in this process and then examined and developed findings and conclusions for each.

We identified four levels of ALC management activities. These...

In the previous two chapters, a TRADOC institutional training course was examined and conclusions were presented about the potential benefits of applying an institutional adaptation approach to ATLD management processes. In this chapter, we review three recent ATLD-related RAND Arroyo Center studies and present conclusions about institutional adaptation of ATLD program management processes that arise from this review. These complement the ALC case study and broaden the basis for drawing conclusions about directions for ATLD management improvement. The first study focused on the Army’s DL program, which is related to ALC and other institutional training and education courses. The second...

In this chapter, we first present our conclusions about the changed requirements and nature of the training and leader development strategies that ATLD programs support, and outline general areas where ATLD program management could be improved to better and more efficiently support these strategies. We then outline an overall concept, along with some specific directions the Army could take, to adapt its ATLD management processes to address these areas.

Based on our ALC case study, and other ATLD-related research, we draw the following conclusions:

ATLD strategies and programs have shifted. During the baseline period, they focused on preparing a generally...

Our overall conclusion is that ATLD management processes must change in a major way. Many might argue that while some improvements could be beneficial, the process overall is effective, and so there is no need for major change. However, an objective assessment argues for major change. There are major changes in the operational requirements that ATLD support and in the level of resources that will be available for ATLD programs. These changes generate a need for major changes in ATLD strategies and programs. We found that current ATLD management processes do not provide the structure needed to objectively make the...