Washington, DC - The Navy Senior Enlisted Academy (SEA) is expanding its delivery format to afford every senior chief petty officer the opportunity to attend the SEA prior to selection to master chief petty officer.

This change aligns with the Chief of Naval Operations' vision set forth in the Navy Leader Development Strategy and the Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy's focus on developing leaders.

Starting in Fiscal Year 2017, all newly selected senior chief petty officers will be required to complete the SEA in Newport, Rhode Island, or attend either the Air Force Senior Enlisted Academy, Marine Corps Senior Enlisted Academy, Coast Guard Senior Enlisted Academy or Joint Special Operations Forces Senior Enlisted Academy, in order to be eligible for advancement to master chief petty officer.

Currently, the SEA resident course is six weeks. To meet the increased resident demand without compromising content, the SEA will modify its delivery format to nine weeks of distance learning online, prior to three weeks of resident education in Newport. By October 2015, all active duty personnel attending the SEA will be required to complete newer, longer requirement, followed by the three-week residence.

During the nine weeks of distance learning, each senior chief should expect to spend approximately three to five hours per week on assignments. Reducing the resident portion to three weeks allows the SEA to increase the number of classes per year without increasing the SEA's footprint requirements for base infrastructure. The shorter course also reduces the Sailor's time away from home and parent command, while not compromising educational content.

The present SEA blended course format, six weeks of distance learning followed by two weeks of rigorous in resident education, will continue to be the primary method to attend the SEA for Reservists.

The enrollment requirements remain the same.

Those Sailors who have already earned the rank of senior chief or are selected prior to the FY17 board will be grandfathered under the old policy and will not be required to attend the SEA. The course still remains a requirement for those who have been selected to become a command senior chief, command master chief or chief of the boat. Additionally, senior chiefs who are selected from the FY17 selection board will have to attend the SEA in order to be eligible for master chief.

Limited funding will be available during a permanent-change-of-station transfer. The vast majority of senior chiefs will attend the SEA on temporary-assigned duty orders. The primary funding for the program will come from the Naval War College.

As a prerequisite to attending the SEA, students must have completed the required 70 hours of online Primary Professional Military Education via Navy Knowledge Online.

It is mandatory that this work be completed prior to arrival at the SEA. The DoD Cyber Awareness Challenge and the Personally Identifiable Information training modules are also mandatory for all users of DoD information systems as required by the Federal Information Security Management Act. All students must provide a printed certificate of completion upon check-in at the SEA.

Students must also be within body composition assessment standards upon arrival. Any student arriving to the SEA out of standards will not be enrolled and required to wait 12 months prior to re-enrollment in the course. Any student who fails the course due to academic performance will also have to wait 12 months to re-enroll.

In general, waivers will not be approved. However, exceptions may be made on a case-by-case basis to deal with any extenuating circumstances.

Additional information can be found in NAVADMIN 266/14.