AURORA TEAMS ON NEW TRAINING SYSTEM TECHNOLOGY

Aurora Marketing and Business Development LLC has teamed with Northern Virginia-based Mediaworks LLC to offer a new training system called OSCAR.OSCAR can be used to train any complex system and has wide application for military, defense and commercial use.

Aurora Marketing and Business Development LLC has teamed with Northern Virginia-based Mediaworks LLC to offer a new training system called OSCAR. OSCAR stands for Occupational Skills Competition and Review. The OSCAR system is now in use in the National Guard and the U.S. Army. OSCAR can be used to train any complex system and has wide application for military, defense and commercial use.

A young soldier named Chris Jones, now a Mediaworks Creative Director, developed OSCAR during the Gulf War. He was based in Saudi Arabia where he was part of an M-109 mechanized howitzer unit. The M109 is a large gun mounted on a tank chassis. It is a complex mechanism that requires skilled training to operate and maintain. As is the case in war, Chris was a little bored and was thinking about how to keep up crew training levels while he and his group were sitting around waiting for action. To solve the problem, Chris invented a unique military system training game based on the popular Trivial Pursuit knowledge game.

Todays OSCAR is the matured, now patented, result of what was started in the field during the Gulf War. The OSCAR board game helps teach a variety of skills and helps trained personnel stay current and up to speed. Because OSCAR is also a lot of fun, it takes a lot of the fear out of classroom-type learning and significantly improves performance levels.

In addition to the Trivial Pursuit type game, Chris's company also developed an Internet distance learning systems (including very clever Flash videos) to support OSCAR.

The following units of the National Guard and U.S. Army are using OSCAR: 54th Medical Company (AA); 29th Infantry Division; 201st Field Artillery Brigade; 7th Infantry Brigade; HQ76th Infantry Regiment; 184th Transportation Brigade; and others (Bosnia, Delaware, Virginia, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania).

OSCAR currently has the following Army-based modules :Vehicle / Aircraft Identification; NBC / Medical; Land Navigation /Communications; Individual / Crew Served Weapons; US Army History.

OSCAR has wide application to defense and civilian training requirements. It can be used to improve training levels for firefighters, factory workers, heavy equipment technicians, nuclear power plant employees, automobile mechanics and in any situation where a disciplined work force is needed.

More information is available from Aurora. The Aurora WEB site is http://www.aurora-america.com or call (301) 587-9200.