SINGAPORE: The Ministry of Defence wants to develop a "learning army" and a "thinking soldier" for its next generation of fighting force.

And this calls for a move away from traditional training methods.

In fact, the Singapore Army has been making this shift since seven years ago.

Forty years of national service, and the Singapore Army has trained up an operationally ready and capable fighting force, says Mindef.

This is a far cry from the early days, when the army had no operational or training experience.

Back then, soldiers were told exactly what to do and what not to do.

In fact, those who deviated from the norm were usually punished.

But that scenario has changed, says the army.

The focus now is to harness each individual's full potential and develop a partnership with the soldiers.

Colonel Ishak Ismail, Singapore Army's Assistant Chief of General Staff, said: "The biggest change over the last 40 years is the way we value our people and in valuing our people, we've also changed in professionalising the way we do things. The testimony of such outcomes would be the ability to adapt to learn faster. We may never know what's next. But this will get us the perspective, from the shared perspective and the individual's potential perspective, to get us the next change."

And progressive change is one of the principles used by the army to train its soldiers.

This is to allow them to sharpen their skills.

Training is also based on outcome, and a soldier's training schedule is adjusted according to his training performance.

The army says this approach provides trainees clearer objectives and achieves greater efficiency in using resources.

These measures have proven successful, as shown by a soldier's performance under untested conditions like during the Boxing Day tsunami.

Colonel Ishak Ismail said: "It's a complex environment, something new. In a dynamic environment, we deployed the largest scale of national service force, and we delivered. If you look at how it was done, it's again about that shared perspective. It's about delivering that 'thinking soldier' on the ground, dealing with the adversity on the ground."

And a realistic environment, instead of traditional classroom learning, is one of the learning strategies used to train the soldiers.

This is to build up their confidence and competence.

Going forward, MINDEF says it has implemented several initiatives to further improve the training of its soldiers.

One way is to continue to leverage on technology for effective training of the force. - CNA/ir