ÍÃ×ÓÏÈÉú

Veronika Hinman
Whether it’s at Cranwell, teaching officer cadets or whether it’s at Halton teaching NCOs, I would like to think that we really make a difference.

Harry Richards

ÍÃ×ÓÏÈÉú Military Education is a department of scholars working at RAF College Cranwell. The focus of PME is to develop professional military education, and that means focusing on how to think rather than what to think.

 

Tom Smith

Anybody who joins the Air Force has to go through our course. So in essence, the ÍÃ×ÓÏÈÉú educates every single officer in the Air Force and has done that now for a decade.

 

Clare Stevens

The course here for the cadets is about eight weeks. We teach the cadets in a blended manner. They have an initial session of about 4 hours learning time on the virtual learning environment. They then have an hour and a half of face to face contact time with us where we consolidate what they've learnt online. 

 

Steven Harrison

One of the key skills that we expect any officer in the Air Force to do is to be able to think around a problem whilst maintaining the intent of the commander in prosecuting whatever task they've been given.

 

Harry Richards

The RAF do shape the curriculum to quite a large extent. But how we teach it is kind of up to us. We provide a much nicer, academic, friendly space for them to exercise their critical thinking skills, and I think that's what makes us special here at RAF Cranwell, anyway.

 

Tom Smith

My small team of 12 delivers across two RAF sites here at the RAF College of Cranwell, but also at RAF Halton.

 

Veronika Hinman

At RAF Halton, we teach corporals, sergeants, flight sergeants and ward officers.

 

Tom Smith

Here at Cranwell, I have cybersecurity experts. But I also have people who have invested their lives in military history and have PhDs on various aspects of military history.

 

Veronika Hinman

It's really interesting to teach people who have been in the Air Force for decades, and I very much enjoy conversations we have with them on different topics.

 

Steven Harrison

Professional military education for the RAF is very important. Everything we do is based on how we can apply the lessons we've learnt from history to future operations.

 

Harry Richards

Military environments are almost defined by structure, rank and discipline, because we're civilian academics, they're free to discuss, debate and challenge us, which is really important when it comes to developing and inculcating critical thinking skills.
 

Veronika Hinman

What makes me really proud is that I'm part of something big. We get to do something good for the RAF and ultimately for the country.

 

Clare Stevens

In the two years that I've been working here, I've already seen probably over a thousand cadets go through the course with the team. So I know that we're making an impact, and that's quite a proud moment for me, I think.