A long needed educational paradigm shift is steadily finding its way into the Dutch military organization, namely that of Job Oriented Training [1,2]. When training the JOT way, from day one, military students are confronted with increasingly complex real ‘job’ challenges to be solved in virtual environments. Along that road, we do not take prisoners; mistake means virtual death. Neither do we supply theory in advance: theoretical insights are acquired while solving realistic issues. Frequent and thorough reflection makes the insights stick.

Military personnel enjoy being challenged and thrive on it. This is one of the main observations of four years of JOT within the field of serious gaming. We make them learn the hard way. They say ‘it is pretty cool’.

In this paper, we will explain the effects of JOT on learning and performance as we observed it in the various Dutch military schools that have adopted this way of training. While implementing JOT, we gathered quite some lessons learned. Additionally, we measured the development of crucial aspects of learning and performance during JOT curricula.

Our experiences indicate that JOT may be a very effective approach to challenge soldiers to become professionals, to take responsibility for their performance and to be flexible when their mission and environment change. The effectiveness of JOT is promising for present military education, the road to implementation, however, is challenging.