An Evaluation of the Education and Training of Marine Corps Combat Engineer Officers.

The education and training of Marine Corps Combat Engineer Officers must keep pace with the changing requirements of the modern battlefield. The process should be adaptive to meet the needs of the individual officers. Curriculum planners must know these needs to effectively plan programs of instruction. The primary purpose of this thesis was to identify the education and training needs of these officers. Each course of training was reviewed, and curricula were examined. Previous task analyses conducted by the U.S. Army, Air Force, and Marine Corps were also reviewed. Questionnaires were sent to every Marine Corps officer with a primary or secondary engineer officer occupational specialty. Data collected and reported includes demographic information and perceptions of the relative importance of a training adequacy for combat engineer tasks, the program of instruction at The Basic School, and the program of instruction at the Marine Corps Engineer School. These findings will be useful to curriculum planners at every level of the education and training process for any occupational specialty. Education specialists are provided the perceived training needs of every company grade Marine Corps Combat Engineer Officer.