Sailors arriving at Training Support Center Great Lakes are immersed in a new four-day LifeSkills class that teaches them critical information they will need to know in order to have a successful Navy career. This class had its first 280 graduates April 8.

Previously, Sailors arriving on board from boot camp were enrolled in student indoc before attending any rate-specific courses. Additional classes, such as bystander intervention, were taught after a full day of indoc lessons. Now, LifeSkills covers all of the previous indoc-specific topics as well as the additional intervention-based topics in a four-day, eight-hour learning block.

"The overall mission of the LifeSkills curriculum is to empower apprentice-level Sailors to have good decision-making models when faced with issues involving sexual harassment, diversity, equal opportunity and overall decision-making in general," said Lt. Katy Bock, TSCs learning standards officer for staff and student training. "The content itself is divided into primarily, personal financial management lesson topics, interventional training and Navy core values."

More specifically, the topics covered include military pay and entitlements, healthy relationships, navigating stress, operations security, bystander intervention, banking and financial management service, spending plans, understanding credit and debt, responsible alcohol use, investments and savings, financial planning for deployment, nutrition, consumer awareness, car buying, and operational risk management.

The program is taught by Navy military training instructors who provide 24-hour supervision, leadership, training and professional development of accession-level Sailors prior to their arrival to the fleet. The training uses several scenario-based questions then a polling system reveals the selected courses of action, which then leads into a specific lesson relating to one of the previously mentioned topics.

"The material remains mostly the same but the format is just a little different," said Fire Controlman 1st Class (SW) Juan Vargas, an NMTI with TSC. "The way the course is now, the class stays together the whole time so they build that rapport with each other and they understand that they can rely on each other and they know that they're not in this alone."

For many of the new Sailors, these classes provide them with skills they will need as they begin a life completely foreign from the world they knew as a civilian.

"Because they have liberty, autonomy and money for the first time since graduating boot camp, we want to empower them and provide them with the tools and resources to make sound decisions while they're out on liberty," Bock said.

For more news from Training Support Center, Great Lakes, visit www.navy.mil/