Officer school
An officers 'school (military terminology in Germany), in standard German and in Switzerland as well as in the common authority file with Fugen-s officers' school , is a training facility for officers in the military .
Types of officer schools
The officers' schools in different countries differ in their approach to training, sometimes considerably. They are mostly based to a certain extent on the civil education system . A distinction can be made between different types of officer schools:
- Officer schools in the narrower sense
- Officer's schools with academic training, also officers' colleges
- Staff academies, including leadership academies , general staff academies or general staff schools
It is not always possible to infer the type of training from the name of an institution. The terms military academy and war school can refer to different types of training centers. The military academies that are common in English-speaking countries can also be used by anyone of the above. Types correspond to or even just a cadet institution . The cadet schools are to be distinguished from the officer schools. They are used for pre-military training of young people in school age and usually lead to a general school or to university , serve as officers' schools of vocational training.
Officer schools in the narrower sense
Officer schools in the narrower sense are educational institutions that impart the military knowledge for their profession to prospective officers. These include, for example, the Bundeswehr officer schools:
These schools do not award academic degrees. German officers acquire their academic qualifications at one of the Bundeswehr universities , which in turn do not teach any military content and therefore do not have the character of officer schools. This form of purely civilian university owned by the armed forces has no direct equivalent in other countries.
Officer schools in the narrower sense are the various officer candidate schools of the US armed forces , at which academically qualified officer candidates receive their military training. The British armed forces also regularly employ university graduates as officer candidates who are trained at the officers' schools of the armed forces .
Officer schools with academic training
The officer schools in many countries combine elements of academic and military officer training and award both a military degree and an academic degree after successful training. The major military academies of the US armed forces, for example, correspond to this form. The French armed forces also train their officers according to a system which, in addition to the military, leads to a civil engineering degree .
Staff academies
In contrast to the actual officer schools, which teach young officers basic knowledge of the profession, staff academies serve to train officers further and to prepare them for service in higher staffs. The best-known form of this training is general staff training , which in Germany takes place alongside other elements of staff officer training at the command academy of the Bundeswehr in Hamburg . In many countries, the staff training of the individual branches of the armed forces has been combined into a common armed forces training. This gives the staff officers a broader understanding of the entire armed forces.
Above this training level, there are security policy academies in some countries, where not only officers, but also senior civil servants and other decision-makers from the field of foreign and security policy are trained. The highest security policy training institution in Germany is the Federal Academy for Security Policy in Berlin - Pankow .
Officer training in the United States
Officers schools in the strict sense
Candidates who have passed a Bachelor's degree can become an officer through what is known as an Officer Candidate School (OCS). For regular candidates, the duration of the training is between nine and 17 weeks, depending on the armed forces. There is an OCS in every branch of the armed forces:
- Officer Candidate School of the Army at Fort Benning , Georgia
- Officer Candidate School of the Navy on Newport , Rhode Island
- Officer Candidates School of the Marine Corps on Marine Corps Base Quantico , Virginia
- Officer Training School of the Air Force at the Maxwell Air Force Base , Alabama
- Officer Candidates School of the Coast Guard at the United States Coast Guard Academy in New London , Connecticut .
Officer schools with academic training
The major military academies of the U.S. Forces combine military training with academic college training leading to a bachelor's degree:
- Military Academy of the US Army in West Point , New York
- Naval Academy in Annapolis , Maryland also for the US Marine Corps
- Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs , Colorado .
The United States Coast Guard is a separate armed service by law, but in peacetime it reports to the Department of Homeland Security . The courses take place at the Coast Guard Academy in New London , Connecticut .
Staff academies
The US Armed Forces have several military staff academies and the US Armed Forces Command and Staff College in Norfolk, VA as a joint facility . The highest academic training facility is the National Defense University in Washington, DC
Individual evidence
- ↑ Officers School, the. In: Duden , accessed on December 2, 2012.
- ↑ The overriding general term under GND = 4204569-1 is defined as an officer school ; only the subordinate terms for corresponding German military facilities are defined as officers 'school , see for example GND = 4648229-5: Army officers' school .