Development Planning Made Easy
The Department of Defense (DoD)’s Army Career Tracker (ACT) is a convenient leadership development portal for Soldiers seeking a resource to build and track a personalized career development plan. With more than one million users, ACT integrates training and education tools in a tailored, easy-to-use website.
The ACT website offers Soldiers an avenue for tracking and planning their career progress as they move through the Soldier life cycle. Users are able to search a variety of Army education and training resources, create professional and personal goals, receive personalized advice from leaders and mentors and enroll in courses and training events.
Soldiers can view their career-related data through an integrated hub on the website, which interfaces with more than a dozen DoD and Army personnel source systems to provide data such as Soldier assignment history, training history, educational history and certifications.
ACT’s My Career Dashboard allows Soldiers to view and update their personal profile and administrative data, plus check the status of their Professional Military Education (PME) and professional goals – including civilian education and career goals. The dashboard also includes access to Soldiers’ required Structured Self Development (SSD) modules.
Soldiers can utilize ACT to establish short- and long-term goals, and then set a pathway to achieve those goals. The My Planner section of the website helps Soldiers create professional and personal goals to add to their Individual Development Plan (IDP). Under the IDP tab, Soldiers can create, view and edit their IDP and then, using the website’s collaboration feature, submit it to their leader for review.
The website uses individual Soldier data to create a personalized view of a Soldier’s Professional Development Model (PDM) and monitor career progression. Soldiers can use the planner section to map out events, decision points and outcomes. Additionally, they can track their progress against known career benchmarks and view recommendations for Institutional Training, SSD, Guided Self Development and Credentials/Certifications. PDM recommendations are available for a Soldier’s current level and two skill levels higher.
The Guided Self Development section lets Soldiers view MOS-related degree options, self-development resources, credentials and certifications. The section also allows Soldiers to select goals that automatically populate into their IDP. Users also have access to a consolidated course catalog – accessible using the website’s search tab. Soldiers can choose from the Featured Courses portal to select courses recommended by their advisor based on their MOS and grade.
In addition to tracking and organizing personal development information and resources, ACT also offers collaboration tools that promote communication between Soldiers and leaders. Leaders can receive and accept leader/mentor requests in the My Notices section located on the ACT homepage and use the website to support the development of their Soldiers. Using ACT, leaders and mentors may view and monitor their Soldiers’ education, career and goal status. The Leader Dashboard gives access to reporting Soldiers’ PME, civilian education, professional goals, Global Assessment Tool (GAT) results and reenlistment status. The My Soldiers section allows leaders to conveniently view all of their subordinates’ and mentees’ data in one place.
Leaders and mentors can also use the ACT to enhance personal counseling. Under the My Soldier Details section, leaders can access pertinent information about individual Soldiers and use the information to conduct personalized counseling sessions. Leaders can create, send and track recommendations to one or more of their subordinates by using the site’s Recommendation Kit.
For more information or to start using ACT to efficiently track your or your Soldiers’ career development, use your Common Access Card (CAC) or Department of Defense Self-Service Logon (DS LOGON) to log in at ACTNow.army.mil/.
By STAFF WRITER Tatyana White-Jenkins
