// The NZDF Command and Staff College
By SQNLDR Nancy Kirby
The Command and Staff Course
On 10 December last year, the 29 course members of No 49 Staff Course graduated from the NZDF Command and Staff College. SQNLDR T R Evans, SQNLDR D A I Williams, and SQNLDR W J Quennell were the three RNZAF graduates.
The course members included eight New Zealand Army officers, three from the RNZAF, two from other New Zealand government agencies and 12 overseas students, from as far a field as the UAE, Korea or China. The 7 month-long Staff Course is demanding; the highest level of professional military education available in New Zealand (perhaps the only, and certainly the most demanding, in-house executive development course in NZ!).
The course encourages officers to broaden their minds, challenges them to confront complex contemporary issues, to analyse them and form balanced opinions. In our changing world, the College’s philosophy is to help to prepare officers for an uncertain global future and to lead the NZDF into that future. The education is a means to an end - the development of effective and efficient leaders who can command, manage, and plan in a joint operational and strategic environment.
The course is built around lecturers and guest speakers coming to the College at Trentham, but it includes an Overseas Study Tour – last year to government and military agencies in Japan and Republic of Korea - and an Australian Study Tour, ten days with the Australian Command and Staff College participating in a joint planning exercise. As well, the international students were given an NZ cultural tour to South Island.
The culmination of the course is a series of presentations under the auspices of the Sir Keith Park Memorial Lecture Series; last year the speakers included Dr Vincent Orange, the Rt. Hon James Bolger and His Excellency the Honourable Anand Satyanand, our Governor General.
The NZDF Command and Staff College acknowledges the involvement of Massey University in providing the post-graduate programme, and all the staff at Trentham Camp for their ongoing support to the College.