Tags: Personnel | SSE | Training

The Canadian Armed Forces – Accreditation Certification Equivalency (CAF-ACE) program helps attract and recruit new CAF members. The program seeks to align the training provided by Canadian post-secondary institutions with CAF requirements.

Strong, Secure, Engaged, Canada’s Defence Policy, sets out to grow the Regular and Reserve Forces respectively by 3500 and 1500 ̶ a challenge for those who attract, recruit and train new members. This is where CAF-ACE plays an important role.

“By ensuring that participating institutions’ curriculums match military training requirements, CAF-ACE allows a high degree of confidence when offering incentives and allowances to its members and recruits,” said Brigadier-General Virginia Tattersall, Deputy Commander, Military Personnel Generation.

CAF occupation and training authorities are encouraged to use CAF-ACE to leverage the training and education capabilities of post-secondary institutions in order to attract, recruit and train members.

“We are seeking Canadian colleges capable of providing programs and courses that meet CAF training requirements. This facilitates providing incentives and allowances, and access to the non-commissioned members’ subsidized training and education program,” said Navy Lieutenant Donald Gray, CAF-ACE Manager.

“The benefits of CAF-ACE are significant,” said Sylvain Beauséjour, Staff Officer – Personnel Generation.

“It facilitates the recruitment of graduates from recognized programs, and it is cost effective. It also provides data on the rate of compatibility between military training requirements and institutional programs, and assists in the recognition of previously taken non-military courses. It allows the CAF to recruit semi-skilled candidates, helping our military schools to concentrate on military training,” added Mr. Beauséjour.

“The newly formed Cyber Operator military occupation is an excellent exemple of leveraging the training provided by post-secondary institutions. Out of the seven performance objectives for this occupation, five will be taught outside of CAF training establishments. Our resources will not be invested in brick and mortar but directly on learning,” he said.

Central to the program is the directory that houses post-secondary institutions programs and CAF occupational training needs. The CAF uses this directory to identify matching civilian and military training for a given occupation.