Instructor Training Course Class 08-02

{LTC Wyatt addresses the ITC Class at the Barclay Training Center, May 7th, 2008}


Today I paid a visit to the instructor Training Course underway at the Barclay Training Center in Monrovia. This is our second class to train future Armed Forces of Liberia instructors. The first class (held at Camp Ware) was our proof of concept run with 18 students. It went so well that we were able to expand the course to accommodate 36 students this time around. Today’s instruction included a practical exercise where students each taught class for 10 minutes. Students then critique each other at the close of the session. We had junior enlisted soldiers, NCOs and officers in this class. The idea is to develop a cadre of qualified instructors across the ranks so the new army is well prepared when we finish our training program. This way they will be able to continue as a professional military force.

This course gives me a degree of personal satisfaction, as I had to work very hard and be persistent to see it come to fruition. It is one example of how persistence and innovation can pay off at no or low cost. That said it was not a solo effort. A great deal of effort and cooperation by DynCorp made it possible to put this together and achieve success. As I told the students today, teaching is one of the most important skills one can learn. It is critical to the success of any army to have good instructors to train soldiers.