NAVAL AIR SYSTEMS COMMAND, PATUXENT RIVER, Md. -- The team behind NAVAIR’s College of Business Financial Management and Comptroller will tell you their days are “all about the numbers.” In their classrooms, they teach that the key to running a successful aviation acquisition business is as much about understanding the financial and budget landscapes as it is about ensuring warfighters have what they need to fight and win in the field.

That’s why the college was so proud of its own numbers last month when it marked the training of 5,000 students in just three years.

“Teaching 5,000 students through 40 unique courses and more than 150 training events in just three years speaks volumes about the way we are improving the business literacy of our workforce,” said Sharon Gellerson, NAVAIR's Director for Program and Business Analysis, who serves as the college's co-dean, along with NAVAIR Comptroller Jerry Short. “It also proves that we are solidly aligning with NAVAIR’s long-range strategy, which commits to a meaningful and robust training program for the workforce.”

When NAVAIR Commander Vice Adm. David Dunaway and his leadership team released their long-range strategy earlier this year, they put people first on the list of command priorities.

“We will invest in our people and prepare them for success by investing in quality training, development and certification, and we will foster a culture of continuous learning and the creation of new knowledge,” Dunaway said.

College staff say their courses help provide a progressive and forward-thinking training experience that fits NAVAIR’s current and future needs. Dedicated to building a financially proficient workforce, the college focuses on the business financial management community and expanding the financial knowledge base of employees across NAVAIR. Through student course evaluations, the college has measured a 53 percent increase in workforce knowledge.

“Having an integrated college ensures we deliver world-class financial management training not only to our financial management and comptroller communities, but to the entire NAVAIR workforce,” Short said.

"Some people never know how or why their budgets were decreased," read one student's feedback. "This class exposed the major areas that are at risk for budget cuts and [offered] advice on how to mitigate these risks."

During a recent budget strategy class, another student commented, "I will use this information in analyzing my budgets and prior marks to try to proactively protect programs’ resources."

The classes are built with NAVAIR goals in mind, focusing on how NAVAIR does financial business within itself, the Navy, Office of the Secretary of Defense and Congress. Unique to the college is “Just-in-Time” training, which offers relevant courses weeks before important events, such as budget deadlines or congressional reviews.

“ ‘Just-in-Time’ training is a great way of providing refresher courses to the entire workforce,” Gellerson said. “Many of the financial managers were spending significant hours working on budgets, obligation phasing, funds analysis and other related work and faced mandatory training requirements in the middle of all of that.”

“At the end of the day, we all need to know about the business side of our house," Short said. "The college strives to enable acquisition program success through business and financial management excellence.”

NAVAIR’s College of Business Financial Management and Comptroller is part of the new NAVAIR University, which enables technical, leadership and professional excellence in naval aviation.