Sea Warrior e-Learning: one-stop shopping - Around the Fleet - United States Navy

All Hands, April, 2004 by Scott Sutherlund

Navy leaders on a road trip promoting the Navy's "Excellence Through Commitment and Education and Learning" initiative, Sea Warrior, made a recent stop in Okinawa, Japan, to give Sailors the scoop on the newest achievement tool--e-Learning--to help their career development.

Sea Warrior is a way for Sailors to use their past accomplishments in the Navy to follow the right career path for their future. As one of the implementing initiatives of the Chief of Naval Operations' Sea Power 21 strategic vision for the 21st century, Sea Warrior will fully develop Sailors "who are highly skilled, powerfully motivated and optimally employed for mission success."

With one click of the mouse while logged on to the Navy Knowledge Online (NKO) Web site, Sailors can literally do one-stop shopping, learning about their Navy jobs, how they stack up with other Sailors in the field, what they need to do to help their chances to advance, and much more.

According to Command Master Chief (AW/SW) Mark Hayes of the Center for Naval Leadership located at Naval Amphibious Base Coronado, Calif., one of the driving forces of Sea Warrior's e-learning capability is to revolutionize the way the Navy trains its Sailors.

"With e-learning, we hope to train you when you really need it," Hayes told about 300 Sailors in the Fleet Activities Okinawa area, including deployed Seabees with Naval Mobile Construction Battalion (NMCB) 5. "While we slowly move away from traditional classroom training and do more online training, we need to ask ourselves, 'How do we bring technology online in the way we train you?' In the long run, decreasing the time Sailors spend in classrooms saves the Navy money.'"

Sea Warrior is based on a five-part "vector" model, or 5VM, as it's commonly known, which focuses on a Sailor's professional development, personal development, professional military education and leadership, certifications and qualifications and performance.

Three Navy job ratings--Culinary Specialist (CS), Information Systems Technician (IT) and Yeoman (YN)--were the first to be implemented by the overseers of Sea Warrior, the Naval Personnel Development Center.

"Based on the job task analysis we did," said Hayes, "we found that these three rates were the most manageable to get up and running using the 5VM."

In the opinion of Builder 3rd Class Leota Phillips, Sea Warrior is an "excellent program to keep you updated on all your information. Instead of relying on someone else who's busy with their own things to get the information for you, it's possible to find out what you need on your own and get done what is necessary.

"It's an excellent research tool, and the e-Learning section is extremely helpful," added Phillips. "While not foolproof, it has a definite advantage in controlling your own career."

"The CNO said the Navy wants to be the employer of choice," added Hayes, "and we want you to be the Navy's employee by choice. These five areas of development and performance can help Sailors be all they can be."

From performance evaluations to bidding for job assignment bonuses, a Sailor can literally spend hours e-Learning everything they can to help them help the Navy achieve its goal of having the best people in the right jobs to get its mission accomplished.

For more information about Sea Warrior, go to the Navy Knowledge Online Web site at www.nko.navy.mil.

For related news, visit the Navy Construction Battalion 5 Navy NewsStand page at www.news.navy.mil/local/nmcb5.

JO1(SW) Scott Sutherland, who is assigned to the public affairs office, Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 5.