Capability and Acquisition (CAPAC) Strategic Direction and Capability Planning

Course structure

What you will learn

The aim of the courses is to enable military and civilian staff from Head Office (HO), Commands and Enabling Organisations to acquire an understanding of the MOD’s capability, acquisition and financial management processes, and their application in the development and generation of affordable and strategy-compliant force structures and capabilities.

Each of these three Practitioner courses covers the totality of CAPAC – Directing, Planning, Delivering, Generating and Sustaining Capability; however, each course is tailored to meet the needs of students from different parts of the Defence Operating Model.

Should you have any questions, please contact the Cranfield Student Support team directly on shortcourse@cranfield.ac.uk.

Selecting which course is right for you is covered in the ‘Who should attend’ section below. Although there is no exam associated with this course, you will have many opportunities to try out some of the learning during syndicates’ workshops and tutorials.

By the end of the course, you will be able to understand the relationships and processes associated with the management of military capabilities within the DOM.

Core content

Typically, students will explore:

• Strategic direction to the development and generation of sustainable military capabilities,
• The Defence Operating Model,
• Strategic force development,
• Finance,
• Command-level planning,
• Capability coherence and strategic balance of investment,
• Command models and the generic capability management model,
• Evidence-based decision making,
• Project delivery,
• The management of in-service capability, Defence reform.

Who should attend

Taking one of the Practitioner courses is a prerequisite for a number of military posts. If you are a civil servant, the relevant Practitioner course will provide you with the key skills needed to undertake a job in the capability and or acquisition arena.

If you are an international student or from industry, the relevant Practitioner course will provide you with a working understanding of the processes and terminology used by the UK MOD for CAPAC management. 

CAPAC – Strategic Direction & Capability Planning Short Course

The course is aimed at those seeking to understand the totality of Capability and Acquisition who are currently working in, or who are going to be working within:

Head Office on Strategic Direction. In particular, this includes those working on the development of integrated reviews, their translation into Direction and Guidance for the Commands and Enablers, the allocation of outputs/strategic requirements and resource envelopes, the assurance of capability coherence across the environments and balancing resources against defence priorities to develop an affordable Defence Plan.

Commands and Enablers on planning future Capabilities. In particular this included those developing concepts, planning Capability (including updating/developing Pan-DLOD Assumptions, Capability Management Strategies and Plans) and writing change proposals (ABC Options/Formal Change Requests) to shape the Command's sub-portfolio of change programmes & projects to meet strategic requirements within resource allocations to develop affordable Command Plans and Agreement Plans between the Commands and Enablers.

As such the course is ideal for those working at Desk Officer level in Finance and Military Capability areas at Head Office and those involved in the working of the Capability Management and Capability Planning Groups of Portfolio Offices at the Commands and Enablers.

Speakers

Concessions

The MOD sponsors places on this courses. It is important that the students appreciate that this is a full-time study commitment, including participation in exercises conducted in syndicates.