By MAJ ALFIE R SAGARIO (INF) PA

The development of the Philippine Army Education, Training, and Doctrine (PA ET&D) faces challenges amid warfare's rapidly evolving character and the current volatile and complex regional and global security landscape.

The rapidly evolving character of warfare, as manifested by the application of contemporary forms of hostility — "hybrid" and "unrestricted" — requires the Philippine Army (PA) to be ready to confront potential adversaries that have become more adept at operating across multiple domains while employing both conventional and non-conventional techniques and capabilities. To remain competitive under such conditions, the PA must continuously pursue the advancement of its capabilities as a joint-ready and combined arms-capable force through the sustainment and constant enhancement of its education and training.

The results of the Army-wide evaluation of PA Training Schools and Institutions (PATSIs) in 2022 give insights into the current situation of the PA ET&D. Findings and observations based on the assessment of 12 selected PA Major Unit schools showed that the majority are still in Level 1 (Good) and Level 2 (Very Good) vertical classifications. Based on the AFP Education and Training Evaluation System, only one training school achieved Level 3 (Excellent). This observation is attributed to several factors such as "varying vision, core values, and core purposes of schools that are not aligned with the PA Charter Statement, non-adoption of the Analyze, Design, Develop, Implement, and Evaluate (ADDIE) model, the non-adherence to Army's education and training management process, as well as poor alignment of unit goals and objectives to higher directives, among others" (Training and Doctrine Command, 2022). With regard to doctrine development, the 2022 baseline for the yearly manual development targets under the PA Manual Development Objectives also reflects that only "11% of PA Manuals were developed in the said year" (PA, 2023, PAMDO 2329). This figure indicates the necessity and relevance of continuous efforts to institutionalize systems and processes for doctrine development as an equally important component of the PA ET&D.

In addressing these challenges, the PA ET&D Strategic Plan was formulated as a way to support the strategic objectives of the Army Transformation Roadmap (ATR) to 2040, one of which is to ensure responsive doctrine development and a complementing training system. The PA ET&D Strategic Plan specifically sets the intended goals and direction for the Philippine Army Education and Training Management System (PA ETMS). This system employs the Competency and Capability Determination Framework as an approach for developing the foundational variables of ET&D that are in line with the operational and administrative needs of the Army. This in turn allows the organization to draw and execute responsive, appropriate, and relevant programs, activities, and projects that will contribute to the transformation of the PA into a world-class, multi-mission-ready, and cross-domain capable military service.

RESPONDING TO THE CHALLENGE - THE PA ET&D APPROACH

Officers, enlisted personnel, and civilian human resources are all developed holistically to ensure the effectiveness of Army operations. This is done by implementing a systems approach through the PAETMS to provide "standard, integrated, synchronized, and progressive PA education and training while simultaneously enhancing and upgrading the capabilities of PATSIs to deliver the same; following a systemic analysis, planning and programming, implementation and supervision, and evaluation" (PA, 2020, PAM 8-00). Individual, unit, combined arms, and joint interagency, inter-governmental, and multi-national (JIIM) training serve as inputs to the processes of planning, organizing, commanding, coordinating, and controlling, while taking into account the parameters of doctrine, organization, training, materiel, leadership, personnel, and facilities (DOTMLPF) to achieve operational readiness.

The Competency and Capability Determination Framework underpins the development of the PAETMS. This framework establishes the components of Army capabilities and competencies whose synthesized products serve as bases in determining the Army ET&D programs, activities, and projects for the next six (6) years. A holistic understanding and analysis of these components play a vital role in elevating the ET&D standards commensurate to the current and future requirements of Army operations.

THE STRATEGIES

To achieve the ET&D vision of "A Well-Educated, Highly Trained, and Doctrine-based Army" that contributes to the achievement of the PA vision, specific objectives derived from the components of the competency, and capability determination framework are identified. These objectives are geared towards fully developing the competency needed by the PA and satisfying its needs through the capabilities of education and training institutions. This, in turn, will set clear goals and objectives while measuring the progress that the education, training, and doctrine can use to hold itself accountable for achieving its desired outcomes.

The "Competency Requirements Determination" Strategy

Competencies refer to the knowledge, skills, and attitudes that should be acquired and developed in order to successfully perform specific tasks and responsibilities toward achieving an overall desired outcome. In this context, the Competency Requirements Determination Framework outlines the "competencies required from Army forces, individually and collectively, to perform a wide range of functions and missions (PA, 2020, PAM 8-00). The formulation of ET&D programs, activities, and projects is mainly based on five (5) levels of an environment, as follows:

Individual

In the development of Army personnel, Professional Military Education (PME) plays a vital role in enhancing their knowledge, skills, and attributes throughout their careers. Only by improving an individual’s proficiency will the Army be able to achieve maximum effectiveness and efficiency. As such, it is crucial that PME is responsive and ensures that individuals holding command and staff positions in the Army are competent.

Several objectives must be established to achieve this goal, including identifying training needs for positions at various echelons, reviewing and aligning PME programs, implementing rationalized PME programs, and evaluating their effectiveness. The Army aims to periodically increase the percentage of rationalized, conducted, and evaluated programs by conducting curriculum reviews and development, pre-entry course inspections, workshops, focus group discussions, and committee meetings for the implementation of the service program. By doing so, the Army can ensure that its personnel are equipped with the necessary knowledge, skills, and attributes to perform their duties effectively and efficiently, which, in turn, significantly contributes to the overall effectiveness of the unit.

Unit

Depending on the mission, the PA utilizes various units ranging from teams to divisions in order to organize soldiers and resources. Primarily, these units play a critical role in the PA organization by contributing to the overall organizational effectiveness, efficiency, and mission accomplishment. To optimize the operational readiness of these units in carrying out their specific mandates, it is crucial to provide them with mission-essential, task-based training that will lead to the integration and synchronization of different capabilities in the PA. In doing so, the PA must precisely identify critical tasks that these units need to carry out in order to achieve their mission, develop new or review existing mission-essential task-based training, implement it, and evaluate its overall effectiveness. These mission-essential task-based trainings should be periodically conducted and assessed to prepare PA units to conduct combined arms operations.

Combined Arms

Combined arms refer to the higher level of incorporating combat arms skills and warfighting functions of various Army units to achieve mutually complementary effects in all service capabilities. This pertains to the "integration of complex intra-service (within PA) functions that operate with the full range of competency requirement for combat, combat support, and combat service support to sustain PA operations" (PA, 2020, PAM 8-00).

As the demands for a more collective effort for national security grow, the Philippine Army integrates and synchronizes multiple capabilities to achieve mutually complementary effects capable of overwhelming enemy forces. To do this, the PA needs to develop training programs by identifying the brigade's mission-essential tasks, developing scenarios that simulate wartime operations during the Combined Arms Training Exercise (CATEX), and evaluating the effectiveness of CATEX. There should be at least three (3) brigades to annually undergo CATEX to ensure that the PA's brigades are trained and capable of conducting combined arms operations that will contribute to the joint force.

Joint, Interagency, Intergovernmental, and Multinational (JIIM)

Joint operations relate to the "integration of inter-service (inter-AFP) functions that operate with the full range of competency requirement for combat, combat support, and combat service support to sustain joint and unified operations" (PA, 2020, PAM 8-00) w. While the 11M pertains to the environment with overlapping, yet distinct, domains that require a broader and different set of skills and abilities. Hence, the PA must develop training programs that would allow interoperability with joint, interagency, intergovernmental, and multinational partners to operate in synchrony with the capabilities of its partners.

To cultivate programs necessary in JIIM knowledge, skills, and abilities, the Army should identify specific JIIM training needs for its forces, synchronize JIIM programs with existing capabilities and doctrines, integrate and employ warfighting capabilities in the JIIM environment based on existing war plans, and evaluate their effectiveness in JIIM training. With this, the PA will continue enhancing and conducting its annual unilateral, bilateral, trilateral, and multinational activities in coordination with and support from other branches of service.

The "Training Capability and Resources Determination" Strategy

Apart from determining the Army’s competency requirements, the PA ETMS also considers its training capabilities and resources. Together, these components ensure that the competency and capability requirements from the individual, up to the JIIM level, are efficiently fulfilled using the Army's limited resources.

In the military context, capabilities refer to the strategic combination of force structure and force preparedness to achieve a desired outcome. To be specific, the "Training Capability and Resources Framework specifically adopts the DOTMPLFP approach wherein each element is examined to assess the capability of education and training institutions to meet the Army's competency needs" (PA, 2020, PAM 8-00).

Doctrine

The fast-paced evolution of military concepts and enabling technologies calls for doctrines that are responsive to the demands of the operational environment. With this, the PA ET&D must actively develop Army manuals and review targets that provide purpose, alignment, and direction to the manual development effort of the PA from CY 2023 to 2029. By doing so, education and training programs, activities, and projects for individual, unit, combined arms, and JIIM environments can be developed under doctrinal principles.

To make doctrine manuals effective, two goals should be considered. The first is determining which manuals must be developed, reviewed, or revised following the doctrine roadmap. Second, it is essential to ensure that the doctrine manuals are easily accessible once they have been published. Setting such objectives gives way to achieving a percentage of completion in alignment with the performance measure set by the PA doctrine map of 2029 — which is a map that dictates all doctrines listed under it should be completed and readily accessible in the Army Training Management System. Furthermore, by pursuing these objectives, PATSIs will receive instructions grounded in doctrines aligned with the needs of a specific operational environment.

Organization

The PA has established various training schools and institutions dedicated to achieving its education and training objectives. These institutions adhere to rigorous standards to ensure that the PA maintains high readiness and performance rates. Therefore, it is crucial that these education and training schools and institutions are strengthened to demonstrate excellent institutional quality and program outcomes.

To this end, the PA aims to elevate its PATSIs from initiated centers of development to centers of excellence. This will be achieved by increasing the percentage of programs with a well-designed curriculum, recruiting faculty with relevant or higher degrees and experience, providing appropriate and sufficient equipment and facilities for the programs, publishing research papers relevant to the organization, offering relevant outreach/extension activities, and increasing the number of retention programs offered. The percentage and number should increase annually until all PATSIs reach the center of excellence status based on the AFP Education and Training Evaluation System by 2029.

Training

The quality of education and training delivered in Army schools and training institutions reflects the competency and proficiency of the personnel and staff assigned in these areas. Hence, developing their full potential is imperative "to ensure an adequate qualified, competent and committed teaching staff in different Army schools and training institutions" (PA, 2020, PAM 8-00).

To achieve its goals, the ET&D will continue strengthening the skills of personnel assigned to training positions. This will be achieved by identifying the core competencies required for instructors as well as implementing and evaluating a faculty development program. This program will include annual instructor development training, an instructor development trainers' training course, and a curriculum development course. As a result, the percentage of personnel in PATSIs capable of conducting standard instructions, training potential instructors, and developing and reviewing curriculum will increase over time.

Materiel and Facility

An essential consideration for the Army ET&D is the provision of equipment and facilities that support realistic training scenarios that enhance the competencies of the Army forces.

Establishing a training maneuver area for unit and combined arms training is a top priority for the Army ET&D. The Luzon combat readiness training area's Phase 1 is expected to be completed by 2024, with Phase 2 construction scheduled for subsequent years. It is also crucial to develop and operationalize a Master Development Plan (MDP) for PATSIs until 2029, aligned with the approved strategic basing plan and responsive to the operational environment. Furthermore, reviewing and revising the current TE and facility requirements of PATSIs is necessary to rationalize the allocation of equipment and facilities based on PATSIs' absorptive capacity. These objectives and targets will address the facility and equipment requirements of PATSIs, ultimately achieving their highest readiness condition.

Personnel

Aside from qualified, competent, and committed education and training staff, the student-instructor/trainer ratio is another critical factor in delivering high-quality and responsive programs. The personnel capacity of PATSIs is directly linked to the quality of learning and training that are provided to Army forces, wherein sufficient capacity is imperative in ensuring that all the individuals and units under each school and institution are fully catered to and absorbed. 

In order to have highly qualified and competent personnel that will fill up the desired strength in PATSIs, the Army ET&D shall support and endeavor the formulation of a set of qualification criteria for the personnel of PATSIs, promote the development of a standard program for the teaching competency of instructors, for the curriculum developers, and further support the efficient use of available data to monitor the performance and improvement of personnel's knowledge and competency through quality training programs.

Leadership

In the context of education and training, leadership refers to "a process of supervising schools, courses, and trainings in order to ensure that the set objectives required by the Army are achieved" (PA, 2020, PAM 8-00). Education and training leaders are in charge of cultivating a sense of common purpose, direction, and motivation. They oversee the continuous implementation of integrated and standard systems and processes in schools and training institutions which are imperative to achieving the Level 3 Certification for PMETI and SMETI.

The Army ET&D endeavors to develop and capacitate projected or designated training officers, course directors, commandants of schools, and heads and staff of offices for education and training. Likewise, these objectives are supported by the training faculty development programs and activities through the annual conduct of education and training family conferences and summits. Thus, the percentage of personnel occupying critical positions and handbooks developed in PATSIs will improve periodically to maintain its positive leadership culture.

Policy

This refers to the "common approaches, protocols, and procedures that are implemented to guide the education and training system of PA" (PA, 2020, PAM 800). As shown in the Hierarchy of Training Levels, policies underpin the formulation of   responsive trainings, courses, and exercises that deliver the progressive enhancement of proficiency at the individual, team/squad, platoon, company, battalion, brigade, and JIIM environments.

The ET&D shall maintain its commitment to policy review and impact assessment reports while supporting policy awareness programs and policy enforcement activities. This is imperative to ensure the development and implementation of responsive education and training policies that are strictly and comprehensively evaluated. Such policies will facilitate the advancement of PA forces to become capable of combined-arms operations and prepared for joint military actions.

CONCLUSION

A strategic plan has been developed to guide the Education, Training, and Doctrine Development programs of the Philippine Army over the next six years. The plan aligns with the priorities and objectives of the ATR 2040 and aims to equip the Army for emerging and evolving defense and security challenges.

To ensure that the Army's training and education programs are aligned with organizational goals and objectives, the plan uses a Competency and Capability Determination Framework that assesses competency requirements at various levels. 

The plan is dynamic and requires regular review and updating, with program assessment processes in place to evaluate its effectiveness and hold the PA ET&D accountable for achieving desired outcomes.

Overall, the plan aims to transform the Philippine Army into a highly professional and fully-capable force trained for combined arms and joint operations.

WAY FORWARD

The strategic plan supports the Army's 2040 vision of achieving excellence in multi-mission readiness and cross-domain capabilities. It emphasizes the importance of a well-educated, highly trained, and doctrine-based Army that aims to achieve strategic objectives through the implementation and operationalization of the following PA ET&D targets: 

• Effective and efficient individuals in accordance with their prescribed unit functions through responsive PME programs that develop individual competency;
• High-performing and combined arms capable PA units through mission-essential task-based trainings;
• Combined arms capable and joint-ready brigades through responsive training programs for PA's Brigade Combined Arms Capability;
• Multi-mission ready and cross-domain capable PA fighting force through training programs that develop competencies for JIIM interoperability;
• Readily available and accessible relevant manuals through progressive doctrine development;
• All PATSIs demonstrate excellent institutional quality and program outcomes and are recognized as Centers of Excellence based on the AFPETES;
• All PATSIs have competent and committed instructors and teaching staff;
• All PATSIs have sufficient, updated, and responsive materiel and facilities;
• Establishment of a positive leadership culture suitable for the PATSIs;
• Qualified personnel fill up the desired strength in PATSIs with a close-to ideal student-to-instructor/trainer ratio; and
• Implementation of comprehensive approaches, protocols, and procedures in PA ET&D development programs.

REFERENCES

Training and Doctrine Command. (2022). Executive Summary of PA-Wide ET/ Evaluation 2022. Tarlac City: Philippine Army.

Office of the Army Adjutant. (2023). Philippine Army Manual Development Objectives (PAMDO) 2023-2029. Taguig City: Philippine Army.

Office of the AC of S for Education and Training, G8. (2020). Philippine Army Manual 8-00 Army Education and Training. Taguig City: Philippine Army.