Business Solution: Training and Education
Challenge: Established in 2004 and located within the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC) in Charleston, SC, the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) Maritime Law Enforcement Academy (MLEA) is the premier training center of Maritime Law Enforcement (MLE) Officers. MLEA oversees 14 resident courses in Charleston, with an annual throughput of 9,600 students. The consistency of high-quality instruction and course development is a top priority for the MLEA. This priority is challenged by the typical three-year tour of duty for our active-duty Coast Guard men and women. At a training facility, such as MLEA, this quick turnover could easily lead to shortages of qualified personnel available to provide student instruction due to a rigorous instructor qualification process, that can easily exceed 6+ months, and the departure of active duty members after such a short period of time. Equally important as qualified instructors to a training center are instructional systems designers (ISD). ISDs plan, write, and design each detail of every course offered at MLEA. Requiring a master’s degree, ISDs are highly trained and educated in their craft, and their positions cannot be successfully filled by most active-duty members rotating in and out every three years. To successfully fulfill its vision of being the premier provider for all Maritime Law Enforcement Training, the MLEA required a blended staff of active duty Coast Guard men and women and permanent full-time contract employees.
Solution: Pharos Group is a part of the USCG’s Training and Services contract, where we exercise our deep understanding of the USCG’s Maritime Law Enforcement mission. Our expertise in MLE training stems from our owner, Timothy Ciampaglio, a retired USCG Commander, who spent several years as a MLE instructor, Senior Instructor, and Assistant School Chief at the then MLE School during his active duty USCG career. Currently, Pharos Group has two ISDs who are responsible for creating and designing all of the curriculum that is taught at the MLEA, and an additional ISD responsible for the development of curriculum for the Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear (CBRN) Program that recently transferred from the MLEA to the USCG’s Special Missions Training Center (SMTC) located in North Carolina at Camp Lejeune. Pharos Group also provides the MLEA with 18 highly qualified and talented MLE Instructors. Our ISDs and Instructors collaborate with the MLEA Training Division on the creation and implementation of the MLEA’s curriculum for one “A” School and 13 “C” Schools.
Result: Pharos Group’s team of expert ISDs and instructors has provided the MLEA with the training consistency they required to operate at full student capacity to accomplish their mission. When newly assigned active-duty Coast Guardsmen and women arrive, our team of contract instructors is among the first to greet them and assist in their development and training to reach their goal of qualifying as MLE instructors. Pharos Group’s Team provides the MLEA with 47,500 instructor contact hours and 8,900 course preparation hours for a total of 56,400 hours of annual training support. Our team continues to support all four Schoolhouses under the MLEA Training Division and perform all methods of instruction, to include classroom instruction, practical performance facilitation, and defensive tactics and dynamic law enforcement mat room training and facilitation. Each member of Team Pharos takes great pride in their contributions to the development of the men and women serving the U.S. Coast Guard, and strive daily to perform to the standards of the MLEA’s Motto of, “Safe, Legal, and Professional.”
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