Marines at Recruiting Station Houston graduate from their Advanced School Seminar on June 21, 2024. A new senior noncommissioned leadership school pilot program will merge career and advanced schools for staff sergeants and gunnery sergeants, streamlining their training time, according to the service. (Ryan Pulliam/Marine Corps)
Marine Corps staff sergeants and gunnery sergeants will begin attending the same leadership school for promotion to the next rank under a pilot program that will merge their respective schools.
The creation of a single program to teach leadership skills, tactics classes and other aspects of their roles is intended to lessen the time those Marines spend away from their units.
The program consolidating the Career and Advanced schools will begin in the spring, a Marine Corps administrative message said.
While the change is being referred to as a pilot program, it appears likely to become permanent. The administrative message issued this month stated that the existing format offering separate resident schools will sunset in February 2025, while distance learning programs will be available until June 2025.
The new senior noncommissioned officer leadership school will be offered in two formats, online and in person. The online version will last 15 weeks, and prerequisites will be updated. The distance course will be run through the Fort Worth, Texas, region beginning in March 2025 and be offered to Marines who can’t attend in person.
The course sites are at Marine Corps Base Quantico, Va.; Camp Lejeune, N.C.; Camp Pendleton, Calif.; and Camp Smedley D. Butler on Okinawa. For the resident version, instruction will begin in April and is shortened to seven weeks.
Staff sergeants and gunnery sergeants who have already completed current requirements are exempt from attending the new program, according to the statement.
A third option is a two-week format available for Marines of those two ranks who are individual ready reservists or get mobilized as individual augmentees.
“Through the (school), our SNCOs are equipped with the tools to not only lead more effectively but to mentor and guide their Marines through the complexities of today’s operational environment,” Sgt. Maj. Stephen Griffin of the Training and Education Command said in the Dec. 23 statement.
The change was intended to balance the needs for education and occupational training, Griffin said.
Timelines for classes beginning in the 2026 academic year starting in July have not yet been announced.
