Developing Mach-21 Airmen - Epi 9 – Breaking Paradigms

In this episode, James Rumfelt from the 82nd Training Wing Public Affairs office at Sheppard Air Force Base, Texas, talks with two senior NCOs from the 365th Training Squadron about breaking industrial-age paradigms in Air Force technical training. Master Sgt. Brion Kennedy, the avionics fundamentals flight chief, and Master Sgt. James Churchill, the heavy avionics flight chief, discuss various ways they are working to break those long-held paradigms. One example is breaking the paradigm that "time is the constant." Instead of focusing on an exact number of days for graduation, focusing on the competence-level at graduation. This resulted in a very prepared Air National Guard Airman graduating from the avionics fundamentals and electronic warfare courses in a fraction of the time it would normally take. They also talk about some ways they can make the training more learner-centric: wether it's putting unclassified training materials online for all the students to access, or giving all students an iPad so they can study their class materials at any time.