The Defence College of Communications and Information Systems (DCCIS) was formed on 1 April 2004 as one of 6 United Kingdom Ministry of Defence Training Establishments (DTEs) introduced to deliver coherent and cost effective training across defence. DCCIS's mission is:
- to train servicemen and women to deliver information and communication services on and in support of operations.
The College consists of a headquarters based at Blandford Camp in Dorset, the Royal Navy CIS Training Unit at HMS Collingwood, Fareham, Hampshire, The Royal School of Signals at Blandford Camp and the Royal Air Force Number 1 Radio School, collocated with the headquarters of the Defence College of Aeronautical Engineering at Cosford, of which the Aerial Erector School at RAF Digby is a part. DCCIS reports to 22 (Training) Group RAF.
The three schools deliver a wide range of basic and advanced training in communications and information systems to British servicemen and women and international defence students. Overall the College delivers over 300 different course types, from short equipment-specific courses to Bachelor and Masters degrees. It also delivers training in military skills, command and leadership management courses alongside its technical courses, and standalone packages to Royal Signals NCOs and warrant officers from the Army.
DCCIS has an established staff of 1,569 (948 military, 629 civil service) instructional, management and support staff. In 2007/2008 it delivered over 350,000 man training days to an average student population of 1,600. Its annual operating budget is in the order of £48.4 million.
As part of the Defence Training Rationalisation programme, plans are being made to collocate the DCCIS elements at RAF St Athan in south Wales in 2014, together with the Defence Colleges of Electro-mechanical Engineering and Aeronautical Engineering. This will be part of a commercial partnership with Metrix UK, an industrial consortium, which should see the delivery of the first genuine Defence, rather than single-Service, training courses.
DCCIS also administers Blandford Camp, a 1,200-acre (4.9 km2) site home to 10 other organisations, mostly CIS related, with a total staff of over 1,000. The camp includes 500 service family houses, accommodation for a further 2,000 single or unaccompanied personnel, and a wide range of social amenities. The site includes within its boundaries 3 Sites of Special Scientific Interest, 9 Scheduled Ancient Monuments' and 9 Sites of Nature Conservation Interest.
Famous quotes containing the words defence, college, information and/or systems:
“Behold now this vast city; a city of refuge, the mansion house of liberty, encompassed and surrounded with his protection; the shop of war hath not there more anvils and hammers waking, to fashion out the plates and instruments of armed justice in defence of beleaguered truth, than there be pens and hands there, sitting by their studious lamps, musing, searching, revolving new notions.”
—John Milton (1608–1674)
“here
to this college on the hill above Harlem
I am the only colored student in my class.”
—Langston Hughes (1902–1967)
“Many more children observe attitudes, values and ways different from or in conflict with those of their families, social networks, and institutions. Yet today’s young people are no more mature or capable of handling the increased conflicting and often stimulating information they receive than were young people of the past, who received the information and had more adult control of and advice about the information they did receive.”
—James P. Comer (20th century)
“The skylines lit up at dead of night, the air- conditioning systems cooling empty hotels in the desert and artificial light in the middle of the day all have something both demented and admirable about them. The mindless luxury of a rich civilization, and yet of a civilization perhaps as scared to see the lights go out as was the hunter in his primitive night.”
—Jean Baudrillard (b. 1929)