About
Founder
Chris Barry CBE is a former British Army Major General and founder of the C21st Training Group and a former British Army Major General. During his 31 year career, Chris served on operations across the world working with people from over 100 militaries, experience he used later as the British Army’s principle Training officer to build and lead the team that conceived and delivered the British Army’s internationally recognised Land Training System.
The British Army’s Land Training System
The British Army’s Land Training System was conceived to answer a defining challenge of the 21st century: how to build capability faster than threats and technology evolve. A smaller, heavily committed Army needed to master increasingly complex skills, introduce new equipment and prepare for operations with less warning. That demanded a fundamental change in how it trained.
The system starts with a clear question: what must people and teams be capable of doing? It then builds a progressive pathway from their existing skills to the required standard. Its three connected elements—Tradewind, Cyclone and Storm—develop foundational skills, protect regular training for teams and bring those teams together for demanding combined arms training. Individual and collective competence develop together, helping the Army skill faster.
Crucially, this is a system for building capability. Courses are one method among many, alongside practical experience, coaching, simulation and exercises. Training time, people and resources are protected; data reveals skills gaps and tracks progress; and assessment establishes what people can actually do. Once competent, teams face realistic, unpredictable challenges that develop judgement, initiative and adaptability.
Its strength lies in connecting training, operational experience and innovation. Lessons from today reshape tomorrow’s requirements, while training provides a place to test new equipment, ideas and ways of working. Technology becomes useful capability because people learn to employ it effectively together. The training system must itself keep adapting as the requirement changes.
These principles apply far beyond the military. Large businesses, emergency services and security organisations face the same underlying challenge: developing people and integrating technology quickly enough to meet changing demands. They need teams that perform together, retain expertise and respond confidently when circumstances change. The military context is distinctive; the disciplines of clear requirements, protected practice, measurable competence and continuous learning have much wider application.
For C21st Training Group, this experience provides the foundation for helping organisations transform how they develop capability. We apply the principles to each client’s circumstances—helping them skill faster, improve performance and build the adaptability to succeed.
