Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center, Twentynine Palms, Calif. -- Marine Administrative Message 085/13 was released Jan. 21, stating that the Marine Corps Institute Sergeants Course is no longer required for sergeants to be considered Professional Military Education complete. Instead, the MarineNet course, Sergeants Course Distance Education Program, will be the new requirement for sergeants.
The change is to better prepare Marine sergeants for greater leadership roles and responsibilities, according to the MarAdmin.
The new DEP can be found on Marinenet. It was developed by the College of Distance Education and Training in cooperation with Marine Corps University. It will consist of nine sub-courses containing 29 lessons. The sub-courses include administration, communication, warfighting, squad operations, tactical planning and tools, training and leadership.
Enrolling in the DEP through MarineNet will automatically enroll the Marine in all nine sub-courses.
Once the lessons within each sub-course are completed, a randomized end-of-course exam will be generated which will require a proctor in order to take.
The Sergeants Course DEP will take approximately 60 hours to complete. This includes time to study, completion of each exercise and all nine end-of-course exams.
The course is available now and once it's completed, the Marine will be considered PME complete for grade and eligible for consideration for promotion.
The current Sergeants Course MCI is still being used. However, it will be discontinued as of July 1, 2013. Those enrolled in the MCI will have until Dec. 31, 2013, to complete the course or they will be disenrolled.
For more information on the Sergeants Course DEP, review frequently asked questions at www.tecom.usmc.mil/cdet/sergeants_course.asp or contact the Marinenet help desk at 1-888-4DL-USMC.