All Soldiers required to take language skills assessment

U.S. Army officials have announced that all Soldiers have until March 15 to complete a brief one-time self-assessment of their foreign language skills.

The survey is mandatory for active and reserve component Soldiers, according to the Army’s Human Resources Command. Army civilian employees are being encouraged, but are not required, to complete the assessment as well.
The mandatory survey complies with a Department of Defense initiative to improve foreign language expertise and have an accurate assessment of its personnel’s language capabilities, Army officials said.

The Army will use the results of the survey “to close the data gap between traditional means of recording language capabilities and expertise acquired by other than formal Army/Department of Defense training or testing.”

Traditionally, Soldiers’ foreign-language capabilities have been assessed by having them complete the Defense Language Proficiency Test, said Lt. Col. Kate Crusan of the U.S. Army Europe personnel directorate.

Colonel Crusan said the purpose of the survey is to identify Soldiers and civilian employees who have language capabilities that may not have been identified by the DLPT that could be put to use on short notice as needed for national defense.
The colonel stressed that there is no intent to create additional deployments for any Soldier or civilian employee whose survey results indicate that they are fluent in a foreign language.

Soldiers who meet speaking, reading and writing requirements for specific languages may also be eligible for bonus payments, even if they are not filling positions for which that language is required, Colonel Crusan said.

A portion of the survey allows participants who speak only English to submit that information, according to information on the HRC Web site. Soldiers can access the self-assessment survey via the HRC site at https://perscomnd04.army.mil/langsurv.nsf/langsurvcentopen?openform. Civilian employees can access the survey via MyBiz on the Army’s Civilian Personnel Online Web site at  www.cpol.army.mil.

For more information, contact HRC in Alexandria, Va., at
703-695-7697 or 312-225-7697.
(Courtesy of the U.S. Army Europe Public Affairs Office)