The Air Force Academy has started hiring senior non-commissioned officers as faculty instructors.

It’s not the first time enlisted airmen have taught cadets at the Colorado Springs, Colorado institution. But this will be the first time they’ve been directly assigned there to serve as accredited academic faculty instructors, the academy said in a Monday release.

“This initiative has grown as a result of decades of enlisted educational growth,” Chief Master Sgt. Rob Boyer, the academy’s command chief, said in the release. “We want to leverage opportunities for our enlisted airmen to utilize their advanced education while still serving to contribute even more to the Air Force mission.”

Boyer said that the Academy and Air University teamed up on this change, which is intended to help improve enlisted force education across the Air Force and the joint service environment with other branches of the military.

“This is an additional opportunity to show our cadets our enlisted airmen are smart, capable and able to get after today’s complex mission environment with commander’s intent,” Boyer said.

The academy has already selected a chief master sergeant to manage enlisted instructors, the release said, and two other faculty instructor positions are open to E-7s and E-8s.

The Air Force Personnel Center has created a new duty position for these jobs, and began announcing the opportunities for SNCOs on Jan. 23.

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Enlisted faculty instructors will be assigned to an academic department, the release said.

“They’re going to be instructors at an accredited university teaching courses within their degree discipline,” Master Sgt. Talisa Williams, superintendent of the academy’s military personnel division, said in the release.

One enlisted airman, Senior Master Sgt. Sadie Chambers, has already been selected to teach as an accredited instructor as superintendent of the academy’s Center for Character and Leadership Development. Boyers tapped Chambers, who was previously serving as the academy’s religious affairs functional manager, to teach while it worked with AFPC to stand up these new positions.

Chambers received a master’s degree in human relations in May 2017, and soon afterward began teaching leadership courses, with Boyer’s encouragement. She said that having the chance to teach cadets is a humbling opportunity, and she has also been chosen for promotion to chief master sergeant.

“I have the awesome responsibility of helping them grow on their leadership journey,” Chambers said. “We’re here to develop leaders of character and for the past two years, I’ve had a front row seat.”

Stephen Losey is the air warfare reporter for Defense News. He previously covered leadership and personnel issues at Air Force Times, and the Pentagon, special operations and air warfare at Military.com. He has traveled to the Middle East to cover U.S. Air Force operations.

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