Bachelor of arts in intelligence studies - it's real!

Number24

I thought I'd give you a look into how intelligence officers are trained by the military intelligence in Norway. I have never been a part of that world, so everything is from open sources.
This is the cover of their study plan:






The ravens seen in the symbol are Hugin and Munin. According to Norse mythology then two ravens were sent by the god Odin to Midgard (Middle Earth- the world of men) and return to their master to whisper to him about what happens in the outside world.
The training is organized as a bacherlor degree and gives you the rank of sergant. Only Norway and the USA has intelligence colleges working with and integrated into the intelligence services. The studies take 2.5 years and you have to serve a minimum of 2.5 years after graduating, almost certainly including a tour abroad. During selection the applicants are only identified by a number.







The number of female students is higher than other military schools and units:








The training is a mix of civilian and military skills, the "green" skills include doing reconnaissance patrols. But the bulk of the studies is languages. They learn Russian, Arabic, Dari or Pashtu. Each day they have to learn a high number of words in the language they are learning.










But the students don't just learn a language, they also learn a culture. Food, jokes, songs, litterature and history are parts of the corriculum.









The students have 16 hour working days and they have to pass tests daily. They can't tell anyone what they do for a living and they have cover stories. The class rooms are named after famous people from the intelligence world (I'll bet there is a room named after Gunnar "number 24" Sønsteby.)






The students live at the college dormetory/barracks:


After finishing the college the students will work in military intelligence, special forces or the Inteligence Battalion (a unit doing a mix of LRRP, SIGINT and analysis. I know one of the young women who got special forces training last year is now at the intelligence college. I would love to follow her career, but I probably won't get the chance.
A class photo with censored faces, even though the photo is places inside the college:



The official recruitment video for the military "spy school":

https://www.facebook.com/Forsvaret/videos/1672738029450339/

JTM

Very interesting, thanks for sharing N24! The whole process is a lot different to the intel recruitment and training over my side of the world. While the intelligence “school” is fairly isolated compared with other defence establishments around the country, military intelligence in the 3 Australian services is, generally, not as secretive as what’s seen above. The Norwegian intel training, with the whole “you’re only a number” and very secretive nature seems is a lot more like special forces or government intelligence agency recruiting and training. I love the fact that you do a bachelor degree in intelligence are a part of the course, it would be an excellent degree to study - there would be some very interesting, and currently extremely relevant, subjects undertaken.

caractacus potts

so is the degree itself Top Secret or can you put it on your resume?
if its Top Secret, do they manufacture you a backdated biography, to fill in that unexplained gap in employment history?

Number24

I don't know. My guess would be that the degree is secret until you leave the service and you can't put it on your resyme until then. I think the director of Telenor, Norway's biggest telecom company is a graduate. That's the rum our, anyway. There was a scandal few years back, it turned out he didn't really have a degree in Agriculture that was on his CV.