Training Programs & Standards

Certified Training Programs:

Intelligence & Security Academy (2024) - Intelligence Career Development Program

ISA believes in a blended approach to education. Depending on the type of training, we vary teaching techniques, including presentations by subject matter experts, featured guest speakers from senior roles across the interagency, in-class exercises, case studies with student presentations and discussions, and the use of other media that allow students to apply their knowledge in real-time. ISA will help bridge whatever knowledge gaps an organization may have.

• Intelligence Community 101
  • This 5-day course seeks to draw back the cloak on one of the U.S. Government’s most storied institutions: The Intelligence Community (IC). Designed for learners who are new to the intelligence and national security field, IC 101 offers insight into the Community’s roles, responsibilities, missions, and processes.
• Department of Defense 101
  • Our DoD 101 course is designed for learners who are unfamiliar with the Department of Defense (DoD). This 5-day course seeks to unlock the secrets of one of the most complex bureaucracies in the U.S. Government.
• Intelligence Resource Management 
  • This 3-day course explains how military and national-level intelligence resource requirements are met through the federal budget process. With the instructional materials and discussions, learners gain a foundational understanding of the associated budgetary processes and terminology.

Pherson Associates, LLC (2018, 2021) - Intelligence Analysis Training Program

Certified Training Courses:

Intelligence Rising (2020) - Certificate of Intelligence Practice Course

Intelligence Rising's flagship course, the  Certificate of Intelligence Practice provides a comprehensive introduction to the contemporary theory and tradecraft in use internationally within the intelligence profession. While on-the-job training will always play the greatest role in forming an intelligence officer, this course provides the fundamentals of intelligence analysis and assists agencies to ensure their officers have the foundations in place to work and establish consistency in language and understanding amongst their staff. In government and non-government sectors beyond national security, much of the intelligence workforce is being drawn from existing resources. Hence, traditional education approaches do not often answer the need for immediate skills transfer and proficiency. With this course, organisations will no longer have to employ untrained staff and wait for scheduled face-to-face programs or university courses to deliver the basics for their workforce. The course acts as a bridge to meet immediate demands while longer term education outcomes can be achieved later. The course also assists intelligence managers across the commercial and government sectors to challenge their analytical staff to achieve more through professionalizing and honing their skills. Equally, the Certificate of Intelligence Practice is useful for those seeking a career change in analysis, risk and intelligence fields; giving them the knowledge to better present themselves for recruitment. In a world where data is cheap, resources tight and information overwhelming, the role of the intelligence officer has become ever more important to a broadening range of government and nongovernment businesses. The demand for professional officers able to make sense of complex situations, synthesize what is already known, find out what is not known, and improve the quality and speed of decision-making is rising. It is also rising in line with the understanding that expensive analytics systems fall well short of satisfying decision-needs without the intelligence craft.

Standards for Intelligence Analysis Training

Access a PDF document of this page.

The below standards are not intended as a ‘must include’ list, but rather could be chosen from by agencies or providers to fit the needs of intended audiences. Agency or provider-specific materials might also be added, tailored to audience needs. Terminology is not universal and would be changed as appropriate to the region of the world. It would be anticipated that, as these standards frame an initial intelligence analyst training course, practical exercises would be added to the standards as appropriate.

I. Introduction to Intelligence

1. Intelligence Cycle: Discuss the intelligence cycle or process and how its components interrelate.
2. Intelligence Community Overview: Describe the intelligence community in which the agency operates and the roles of each participant.
3. Intelligence Classification: Apply the appropriate system of classification and markings to several documents.

II. Critical Thinking

1. Critical Thinking Defined: Explain what critical thinking is and why it is important to intelligence analysis and the problem solving process.
2. Eight Elements of Thought: Apply Paul and Elder (or other recognized critical thinking) model using the Eight Elements of Thought (or related structure) to critically evaluate a written assessment.
3. Intellectual Standards: Describe the Paul & Elder intellectual standards (or other set of intellectual standards) and how they apply to intelligence analysis.

III. Analytic Writing

Note: references to standards can be substituted for applicable standards in the audience’s jurisdiction.

1. Products Overview: Identify traits of effective IC products.
2. Tradecraft Standards: Relate analytic tradecraft standards to clear writing.
3. Sourcing Standards: Practice writing in compliance with sourcing standards.
4. Writing for Release: Demonstrate writing for release.
5. Practical Exercises: Review and practice critical thinking skills in writing appropriate intelligence documents.

IV. Creative Thinking

1. Brainstorming: Expand their view of possible alternatives.
2. Rethinking: Challenge their assumptions and cognitive illusions.
3. Lateral Thinking: Provide alternative thinking modes.
4. Red Teaming: Think from the opponent’s point of view.
5. Exercise: Provide policymakers options by presenting objective/defensible analysis and help them critically assess intelligence/information.

V. Analytic Briefing

1. Briefing Fundamentals: Describe the fundamentals of briefing.
2. Briefing Formulation: Formulate a briefing based on those fundamentals.
3. Exercise: Provide a short briefing on an intelligence topic – present analytic results orally effectively.

VI. Structured Analytic Techniques

1. Data Exploitation/Collation: Understand need to organize data effectively to analyze it properly.
2. Issue/Problem Development Techniques:
   1. Issue Restatement: Understand how to paraphrase an issue for more effective problem solving.
   2. Evidence Evaluation: Explain when and how to weigh evidence and demonstrate proficiency in doing so.
   3. Assumptions Check: Describe the nature of assumptions, their impact on decision-making and why we need to identify and explicitly state them.
   4. Denial and Deception Check: Describe the elements of denial and deception and their impact on analysis.
3. Visualization Techniques
   1. Link Analysis: Describe the nature of associations and how analyzing these can provide evidence or leads in conspiratorial operations.
   2. Pattern Analysis: Understand the types of patterns that may occur and why or how these patterns may assist in developing indicators and warnings.
   3. Timeline Analysis: Demonstrate the utility of timelines as a marshaling tool.
   4. Commodity Flow Analysis: Demonstrate the efficacy of following movements of things in relation to covert activities.
4. Alternative Analysis Techniques:
   1. What If?: Discuss how unlikely events which would have a major impact should be considered.
   2. Analysis of Competing Hypotheses: Have an understanding of the ability to use Analysis of Competing Hypotheses as an analytic method.
   3. Team A – Team B: Explain how using teams of analysts to argue opposing viewpoints on an issue can be effective in viewing alternatives.
   4. Devil’s Advocacy: Describe how Devil’s Advocacy can be used to uncover analytic alternatives.
      
      

VII. Analytic Issues

1. Collector/Analyst Integration: Explain role of collectors; how to identify gaps in evidence and work with collector to close gaps.
2. Analytic Databases: Describe available analytic databases and how they can be used.
3. Analytic Software: Describe available analytic software and demonstrate how it can be used.
4. Ethics within Intelligence: Examine the necessity of ethical behavior within the intelligence profession.
5. Analytic Outreach and Resources: Describe varied ways in which analytic outreach can be affected, including resources available in open source.
6. Customer Engagement: Understand the importance of knowing your customer and ascertaining his/her needs.
7. Analytic Pitfalls: Describe examples of historic pitfalls in analytic thinking and suggest methods to avoid these.

VIII. Capstone Exercise

1. Exercise and test analytic tradecraft skills in a simulated real-world environment
2. Exercise and test presentation skills in a simulated real-world environment.

For more information, please contact the IAFIE Educational Practices Chair: Dr. James Ramsay (University of Wisconsin-Stout) EdPractices@iafie.org