Have your say on the future of Canadian Military Colleges: Review Board launches consultations with Canadians online portal

[daftandbarmy]

May the odds be ever in your favour

Have your say on the future of Canadian Military Colleges: Review Board launches consultations with Canadians online portal​

July 08, 2024 - Defence Stories

The Canadian Military Colleges Review Board (CMCRB) online consultation portal is open and ready to receive input from Canadians regarding Canada’s two military colleges, as related to the mandate of the CMCRB. The Consulting with Canadians platform will be available until September 15, 2024 for submissions.

The CMCRB will review the benefits, costs and advantages to both the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) and the nation, of continuing to educate Regular Officer Training Plan (ROTP) naval/officer cadets at the Canadian Military Colleges (CMCs) – the Royal Military College of Canada (RMC) in Kingston and Royal Military College Saint-Jean (RMC Saint-Jean) in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu. It is focused on assessing the comparative quality of education, socialization and military leadership training at the CMCs.

“There are current and former CAF members, as well as Canadians in general, who wish to share with us their knowledge of and experience with the military colleges,” said Dr. Kathy Hogarth, CMCRB Chairperson. “The information we gather via Consulting with Canadians will augment the broad consultations we have conducted thus far with subject matter experts across a range of domains, both in Canada and abroad, and will inform our recommendations on the future of Canada’s military colleges.”

The CMCRB, which started work on a year-long mandate in January 2024, is employing a documented, evidence-based approach and consulting widely, both in Canada and abroad, including with current and former CAF members with lived experiences. They will make their recommendations pertaining to Recommendation 28 and Recommendation 29 of former Supreme Court Justice Louise Arbour’s Independent External Comprehensive Review (IECR) in 2025.

Their recommendations will position whether the military colleges should continue in their current form or in a different form as undergraduate degree-granting institutions, or whether officer candidates should attend civilian university instead. The Board is comprised of five external education and culture experts and two internal Department of National Defence (DND)/CAF members.

Have your say on the future of Canadian Military Colleges: Review Board launches consultations with Canadians online portal - Canada.ca

The Canadian Military Colleges Review Board online consultation portal is open until September 15, 2024 to receive input from Canadians on Canada’s two military colleges, as related to the mandate of the Board.

www.canada.ca

 

[stoker dave]

Has this been cross-posted to Reddit? I don't have an account over there. Some of the good folks who contribute to that conversation might want to add their two cents on the future of military colleges.

 

[dimsum]

I filled it out. Interestingly there isn’t a “CAF member who hasn’t been to the CMC” option - the closest for anyone who didn’t go there was “Canadian interested in military matters” or something to that effect.

 

[Good2Golf]

I filled it out. Interestingly there isn’t a “CAF member who hasn’t been to the CMC” option - the closest for anyone who didn’t go there was “Canadian interested in military matters” or something to that effect.

Was there an “ex-CAF member of an ex-CMC who is not interested” option to optionally opt out option?

 

[Blackadder1916]

• I am a current or former naval/officer cadet of one of Canada’s military colleges.

• I am a current or former CAF members with experience at one of Canada’s military colleges.

• I am a current or former DND employee with experience at one of Canada’s military colleges.

• I am a current or former academic or non-public fund employees of one of Canada’s military colleges.

• I am a Canadian with an interest in Canada’s military colleges.

They seem to be situating the estimate by primarily only seeking input from students, graduates and staff of the milcols. I would be interested in seeing how many of those would respond with comments that one of the important milestones in their life and career was one of the worst decisions that they had ever made. And even the questions that they posed presupposes that the milcols should remain and only need changes to eliminate the problems.

What are the benefits, costs and advantages of educating naval/officer cadets at Canada’s military colleges? So they only want comment about how good it is/was? By phrasing it as such, they suggest that there are no drawbacks, inefficiencies or disadvantages that are worth mentioning.

How is the quality of education, socialization and military training at Canada’s military colleges? The true measurements of those aspects shouldn't come from those who attended a milcol, but from superiors and, more importantly, subordinates. In the self-licking ice cream cone that is the awesomeness of the milcols, it is more likely that an officer's superiors were also similarly educated. To make a better comparison, an adjunct study of the same aspects should be made of those who got their education at a civilian institution.

How well does the current Cadet Wing structure work as a means of learning and developing leadership skills? Again it centres the milcol as the primary leadership development tool for beginning officers and does not seek analysis of other systems or recommendations of using a model that doesn't include the milcols.

What changes are needed to improve the culture at Canada’s military colleges, including current efforts to address sexual misconduct? Likewise

Additional general comments related to the Board's mandate. Oh, where do I start?

 

[FJAG]

I'm also in the process of filing it out and am quite surprised with the narrowness of the questions considering the breadth of their mandate.

Must agree. It feels a bit like a situating of the estimate which will result in some fine-tuning rather than an in depth analysis.

 

[SeaKingTacco]

I filled it out out and stressed that, if we are going to keep the Milcols, making mistakes (and learning from them) while you are there is exactly the point.

To expect mature judgement out of an 18 year old first year cadet, away from home for the first time, is a bit much.

Correct, discipline and correct again. There is no other way.

 

[OldSolduer]

I filled it out out and stressed that, if we are going to keep the Milcols, making mistakes (and learning from them) while you are there is exactly the point.

To expect mature judgement out of an 18 year old first year cadet, away from home for the first time, is a bit much.

Correct, discipline and correct again. There is no other way.

THIS. IS. THE. WAY.

Seriously.

 

[daftandbarmy]

They seem to be situating the estimate by primarily only seeking input from students, graduates and staff of the milcols. I would be interested in seeing how many of those would respond with comments that one of the important milestones in their life and career was one of the worst decisions that they had ever made. And even the questions that they posed presupposes that the milcols should remain and only need changes to eliminate the problems.

What are the benefits, costs and advantages of educating naval/officer cadets at Canada’s military colleges? So they only want comment about how good it is/was? By phrasing it as such, they suggest that there are no drawbacks, inefficiencies or disadvantages that are worth mentioning.

How is the quality of education, socialization and military training at Canada’s military colleges? The true measurements of those aspects shouldn't come from those who attended a milcol, but from superiors and, more importantly, subordinates. In the self-licking ice cream cone that is the awesomeness of the milcols, it is more likely that an officer's superiors were also similarly educated. To make a better comparison, an adjunct study of the same aspects should be made of those who got their education at a civilian institution.

How well does the current Cadet Wing structure work as a means of learning and developing leadership skills? Again it centres the milcol as the primary leadership development tool for beginning officers and does not seek analysis of other systems or recommendations of using a model that doesn't include the milcols.

What changes are needed to improve the culture at Canada’s military colleges, including current efforts to address sexual misconduct? Likewise

Additional general comments related to the Board's mandate. Oh, where do I start?

Survey bias enters the chat... it's basically a 'self-licking ice cream cone' style survey, sadly:

The 7 types of sampling and response bias to avoid in customer surveys​

In a previous post on biased survey questions, we went through how bad survey questions (e.g. leading or double-barreled questions) can negatively impact your survey results. In this post, we’ll be diving into the other major cause of misleading survey data: survey bias.

First, let’s define bias as a whole: bias is defined as “an inclination of temperament or outlook.” The concept comes up frequently in sociology and psychology, because it’s associated with prejudice or favoritism. But how does bias show up in surveys?

Survey bias is a “systematic error introduced into sampling or testing by selecting or encouraging one outcome or answer over others.” That “encouragement” towards a specific outcome is what leads to survey bias, where you may only be getting one type of customer perspective.

The 7 types of sampling and response bias to avoid in customer surveys

Learn how to recognize and reduce the impact of the 7 major types of survey bias, so you don’t end up making business decisions based on inaccurate survey results.

delighted.com