Professional military education develops joint warfighting capabilities.
It is expensive to educate the Navy workforce. Costs include tuition, fees, and salaries; but the real cost is time. As we often hear, time a Sailor spends in a program is time not spent on the job. Residence programs can take one to four years. Part-time, off-duty courses can take six. For the past decade, the Navy has worked to establish an opportunity-based strategy that would offer every Sailor a chance for increased education. A continuum of primary, intermediate, and advanced professional military education (PME) has been implemented, with curricula delivered by numerous means: in residence at the Naval War College; during off-hours at locales near Fleet concentration areas; via an award-winning Web-based distance-learning program; and at sea, using CD ROMs and print correspondence courses. Additionally, the Naval Postgraduate School offers more than 70 degrees and several certificate programs. More than 50,000 Sailors are currently participating, taking 140,000 classes as a result of the Navy's voluntary education programs.
