Created by Captain Michael Turlogh Kane on Aug 16, 2016 @ 12:31am

ADVANCED COMMAND TRAINING (ACT)

ADVANCED COMMAND TRAINING was a course offered by Starfleet Academy between 2410-2420. The idea behind the course had been germinating for some time - that, in every graduating class of the Academy, there were some officers who were elite enough to benefit from early exposure to command training. With the dawn of the twenty-fifth century, the unit was finally organised under the operational authority of Starfleet Academy and the administration of a hand-picked flag officer.

The first ACT class graduated from the Academy in 2410 and were immediately assigned Department Head positions on starships throughout the fleet. Such was the future success of this initial class that Advanced Command Training was permanently added to Starfleet Academy's officer curriculum. Henceforth, after completing their branch specialisations, the Cadets deemed the most promising (not necessarily those with the highest grades) were offered placement in a further one-year ACT course.

As well as learning about the psychology of command, ACT Cadets were put through stressful holodeck situations in order to gauge their readiness to lead. Under the guidance of many experienced Instructors, these Cadets were to become the nucleus of Starfleet's success in the second decade of the twenty-fifth century.

The experiment lasted ten years, but such was the competition for ACT places that ambitious Cadets began to see it as nothing more than a fast-track to the centre seat. After a number of unsuitable candidates had been selected, then rejected during their courses, ACT was finally wound down in 2420. Many of its graduates still serve in Starfleet today.

Recently, there has been talk of resurrecting the ACT programme at the Academy, but those plans were put on hold with the declaration of martial law in 2429. It seems that, for now at least, the ACT program is dead.