Air Force Special Operations Command

 

Course Information

Target Audience: Special Operations personnel who will be engaging in direct, face-to-face interactions with international personnel as part of their duties; This includes but is not limited to: Foreign Internal Defense, Irregular Warfare, medical personnel, bilateral/multilateral exercise mission planners, Non-Standard Aviation, Civil Affairs, Military Information Support Operations, and Foreign Military Sales. This course is especially useful for personnel who anticipate going, but have not yet gone, on a deployment that requires this type of interaction; other government personnel who work or train with international personnel will also benefit from this course.

 

Description: The Intercultural Competencies Course is a 4.5 day course that seeks to provide attendees with general knowledge and skills to quickly and accurately comprehend, then appropriately and effectively act, in a culturally complex environment to achieve the desired effect without necessarily having prior exposure to a particular group, region or its language. Students will apply communication and negotiation skills in role-playing scenarios, and will be exposed to a variety of hands-on exercises that will challenge their own cultural norms. Additionally, the course will address topics in comparative religions, military culture, food and health concerns in an intercultural setting, and culture shock. Due to its SOF focus, the course will draw on former and current SOF personnel to discuss cases studies and lessons learned with the students. Ultimately, this course is designed as an introduction to provide a solid foundation for students to conduct further research into the cultural values and communications styles of specific countries or regions.

 

Course Enrollment: ICSOF is an Open Enrollment course. As such, it requires no prior approval from USAFSOS faculty. Students are required to obtain a training line number (TLN) from their unit training manager. For enrolling through unit training manager (Open Enrollment link above), supply the PDS code found in the above panel, along with desired course dates to your local training manager, who will in turn reserve a course quota for you in the training system. After obtaining a TLN, students need to access and complete registration for the course through Blackboard. Please see the link below and follow the instructions. All students should request a USAFSOS Blackboard account, which also enables access to specific course materials. To access Blackboard, copy and paste the following address into your browser's address bar: https://afsoc.blackboard.com. (We are currently unable to link directly to the USAFSOS Blackboard site per AFI 33-129, paragraph 6.91.)

 

Notes: On the first day of class, students should report between 0700 and 0730 Central Time. This course is scheduled through 14:00 on the last day of class. Course credit will not be given for early departures. Travel arrangements should be made accordingly.

 

 

 

 

! = Change || N/C = No Change || X = Cancelled

Course dates and locations are subject to change, please verify schedule prior to departing duty location.

 

 Updated 19 Jan 2017