Intermediate Command and Staff Course (Land)

The Intermediate Command and Staff Course (Land) (ICSC(L)) is a 26-week residential, comprehensive and generalist mandatory career course run at the Army Division of the Joint Services Command and Staff College at the Defence Academy.

The course provides training and education for all Army and Royal Marine majors, across a broad range of subjects, on promotion (routinely aged ~33 and with 10 years’ professional experience) and where possible for UK civil servants and international partners. The course runs twice per year: the A course from September to March and the B course from January to July.

The course syllabus is delivered through a series of modules and includes:

*Staff and Communication Skills
*Security and Defence Policy
*the Higher Management of Defence and the Army
*Capability (including Business Skills)
*Command and Operations
*Multi-Domain Integrated Operational Concept
*Context and Planning focused on Land Tactical level
*Broader Army and Royal Marines business in the context of defence
*Command, Leadership and Management (CLM)

It consists of central lectures, syndicate room activities and discussions (in classes of c.12 students), exercises (Map Exercises (MAPEXs), Model Exercises (MODELEXs) and Tactical Exercises without Troops (TEWTS)) with additional time set aside for personal study and reading.

It also includes a 2-week exercise at the US Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth and a Staff Ride to Normandy, studying Operation OVERLORD, including Operations DEADSTICK,  GOODWOOD and the events around TRACTABLE.

The course is set at the divisional and brigade level with educational delivery aimed at the postgraduate, masters level.

Having successfully completed the course, officers will have the requisite analytical, thinking and communication skills, professional knowledge and understanding, and the motivation to support a career as a major and lieutenant colonel on the staff as a major in sub-unit command.

Application timelines:

*Army Personnel Centre (APC), will inform captains who have been selected for promotion to major (Beige List) and notify them of their expected attendance on ICSC(L)
*foreign military and civil servants expressions of interest need to be declared through their respective UK Defence Attaché
*any other party interested in joining the course should contact the Army Division SO1 course secretary for more information

Accreditation:

*Army students may volunteer to study for a funded Master of Science MSc (Exec) degree with Henley Business School in Leadership and Strategic Studies, or a self-funded Masters (MA) with King's College London in Military and Security Studies, but these will require some additional work
*Chartered Management Institute (CMI), Level 7 Certificate in Management & Leadership (38 QCF Credits)
*Institute of Leadership & Management (ILM), Level 7 Award in Management (20 QCF Credits)
*City and Guilds (C&G), Level 7 Award, Leadership & Management

By the end of the course, you will have the requisite analytical and communication skills, professional knowledge and understanding to support a career as a major and lieutenant colonel on the staff and as a major in sub-unit command.

*Staff and Communication Skills: this module examines both military and civilian communication skills. It seeks to improve the quality of students’ staff work, both written and verbal. It introduces a range of skills and techniques, as well as thinking skills. It also includes study of applications and programmes which students can use in support of their work
* Security and Defence Policy: this module is taught by our onsite academic partner, King's College London. It entails a comprehensive tour-d'horizon examining both conflict and the caused of conflict, through the study of a series of global examples and case studies
*Higher Management of Defence: this module takes a detailed look at the role of defence in government, including its interaction with other departments such as the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the Treasury. It broadens students' understanding of the way in which government works including defence spending
*Command and Operations: this module seeks to explore the full gamut of command, leadership and management, from both a military and civilian viewpoint. It includes a number of high-profile speakers, as well as a detailed study of the techniques and skills necessary to support accurate and effective annual report-writing. The operations module covers land warfare across the spectrum of operations in line with multi-domain operations and the integrated operating concept, including visualisation of land tactical actions in warfighting at divisional level
*Capability (including Business Skills): students study the way in which capability is managed in defence
*Operational Planning: this module confirms the knowledge of students at the divisional and brigade levels in the contemporary operating environment covering project, engage, constrain and warfight. There are a number of planning cycles in different operating contexts followed by a 2-week exercise in the United States conducted with the students of the US Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth. The battlefield study takes place in France as the culmination of the course. Current doctrine and future concepts are views through the lends of a historical campaign to identify lessons for the future

ICSC(L) provides a unique opportunity for OF3 officers to study strategy, higher management of defence, doctrine and operational planning alongside multi-national partners and be graded against a wider peer group.  The course is supported by numerous senior guest speakers, both military and civilian, up to 4* level.

The course provides focussed opportunities to understand, experiment and develop staff and communication skills, professional knowledge and understanding, and analytical and decision-making skills which will prepare majors for appointments in sub-unit command and on the staff up to and including lieutenant colonel.  The course report is used by boards to support consideration for employment in sub unit command and in staff appointments at OF3.

On completion of the course all students are enrolled onto the Intermediate Command and Staff Course (Land) (ICSC(L)) Alumni page on the Defence Learning Environment. This website is designed to help alumni of ICSC(L) by providing information and links to support professional development throughout their careers.