Facets and challenges of non-commissioned officer training

The Naval NCO School is home to all non-commissioned officers in the navy. Even during the coronavirus pandemic, the institution is demonstrating its willingness to change.

Christian Hillmer and Jan-Nicolas Orth

For more than sixty years, the Naval Non-Commissioned Officer School (MUS) has stood for challenging training for junior officers at NCO level with and without a licence, geared towards the needs of the fleet and troops. Its headquarters are idyllically situated on Lake Plön in the centre of Holstein Switzerland. For some time now, however, the MUS - spread across the four locations of Plön, Neustadt in Holstein, Putlos and Berlin - has been much more than just a non-commissioned officer school, but also a training centre for the next generation.

• Training centre for very specific, cross-career infantry training courses - officially now training - and deployment preparation, for the basic training of officer candidates and for all re-entrants as well as for the German Navy's cross-career basic training.
• the military home for all training participants, whose heterogeneous composition reflects large parts of the social structure in Germany - and thus creates completely new challenges for administration, methodology, leadership and military education.
• an alma mater for subordinate leaders, which is constantly developing its methods and procedures, provides training alongside the career path, but also has to act with increasing flexibility.