RANDOLPH AIR FORCE BASE, Texas -- Fourteen Force Support courses will transition from Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, to the Eaker Center for Professional Development at Maxwell AFB, Ala., by Oct 1.

"We are always focused on educating, developing and preparing our career field leaders, and recent changes to the emerging force support career field reinforces the need to ensure we provide with them with the proper training and tools," said Lt. Col. Brian Schooley, Force Support Leadership Development division chief at Maxwell AFB. "The end goal is to achieve and maintain seamless functional learning to ensure our force support professionals are receiving the right training and education at the right time to best serve our Air Force."

The courses, currently part of the Force Support Department at the Air Force Institute of Technology at Wright-Patterson AFB, will merge with the Human Resource Management School courses at Maxwell AFB.

"This is essentially one stop shopping for force support leadership development," said Lt. Col. William Fischer, deputy chief of the Strategic Plans division for Manpower, Personnel and Services. "By centralizing these force support courses at Air University--the intellectual and leadership center of the Air Force--we will maximize our Airmen's time and leverage scarce resources."

The 14 transferred courses include Force Support Leadership, five force support flight commander/chief courses, Mortuary Affairs, Mortuary Technician, Protocol Fundamentals, Operations Officer, and four force support contingency courses. Some of the 14 courses will merge with existing courses already at Maxwell, such as the Leadership and Flight Chief courses.

Lt. Gen. Richard Newton, Deputy Chief of Staff for Personnel, Manpower and Services, and Lt. Gen. Allen Peck, Air University commander, agreed to bring the courses to one location based on the recent merger of the services career field with the manpower and personnel career field.

"With the consolidation of the courses, we are establishing a career field community which seamlessly integrates the various A1 disciplines into one cohesive culture," Colonel Schooley said. "This will, in turn, enable a smoother transition to the Force Support Squadron construct."

The new consolidated school will serve approximately 1,000 in-residence and approximately 2,500 distance learning students each year. The courses focus on leadership development, functional development, leadership support, supervisory support, new employee orientation and education for first-time supervisors.

"Individual students will receive the same quality education regardless of location," Colonel Schooley continued. "The consolidation provides a unity of effort and a clear way ahead in maintaining existing courses and developing new educational offerings. This will result in clearer lines of communication and improved courses for our students."

While all the courses will transfer or merge by October, many are already offered at the new location ahead of schedule. For more information, visit http://www.au.af.mil/au/cpd/index.html and click on the Human Resource School link.